{"id":453497,"date":"2026-04-25T16:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/453497\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T16:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:57:26","slug":"asparagus-season-has-arrived-heres-how-to-make-the-most-of-it-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/453497\/","title":{"rendered":"Asparagus season has arrived \u2013 here\u2019s how to make the most of it \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the restaurant year, there are moments when creativity becomes effortless, where nature<\/a> itself writes a menu. This might sound flowery and overly romantic, but let me tell you \u2013 when you\u2019re working long hours from morning until night, it can feel like respite when asparagus season arrives. <\/p>\n

Here in Ireland, it lands toward the middle of spring, with a short season that reaches toward the opening chapters of summer. At its peak in late April and early May, it\u2019s truly one of nature\u2019s great gifts. It tends to arrive alongside morel mushrooms from the continent, with early-season peas and radishes from home along with beautiful spring lamb from the hills and inshore fish as the weather improves. All of this makes for a happy and fulfilling marriage on the plate. <\/p>\n

Asparagus itself is perennial and grows quickly, up to five inches a day. It should be served as quickly as possible, while the stem is snapping and the natural sweetness is abundant. As you\u2019ll see in this week\u2019s recipes, a handy trick from the restaurant kitchen is to blanch your spears in boiling water seasoned with both salt and sugar; it makes a world of difference.<\/p>\n

While both recipes this week are simple, they rely on the quality of the ingredients. This is the type of cooking where there is nowhere to hide. <\/p>\n

\"GlazedGlazed asparagus with poached egg and sauce vierge. Photograph: Harry Weir <\/p>\n

The first brings asparagus spears together with a classic sauce vierge, using ripened tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and lots of green herbs seasoned with salt and lemon juice. A poached egg crowns the jewels. Yes, it\u2019s simple, but unless you have snappy spears, sweet tomatoes and spicy olive oil, this just won\u2019t land as it should. <\/p>\n

The second dish is more of a midweek meal, using up the smaller asparagus spears along with some frozen peas in an emulsified lemon glaze for a light linguine dish. If you can source chervil, it works really well here \u2013 if not, just add some extra chopped dill. <\/p>\n

This is simple cooking, but it exemplifies the true quality mark of cookery. When the ingredients are this good, let them speak for themselves \u2013 we are fortunate enough to have them on our doorstep, after all.<\/p>\n

Recipe: Glazed asparagus with poached egg and sauce vierge<\/a>Recipe: Asparagus and lemon linguine with peas and chervil<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout the restaurant year, there are moments when creativity becomes effortless, where nature itself writes a menu. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,58443,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-453497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mark-moriarty","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116466407708539842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}