Asparagus season is upon us! A wonderful time of year where we can enjoy these deliciously sweet vegetables. This recipe is homage to the wonderful asparagus, pairing it's sweet green flavours with a deep spicy marinade, served with a cooking leftovers bubble and squeak patty and a dash of balsamic to finish the dish!
Serves three
Takes 40 minutes (30 prep, 30 cook)
For the asparagus:
15 asparagus
3 small courgette
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp date syrup
1 tsp hot smoked paprika
1 tsp sumac
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
For the patties:
2 large maris piper potatoes
1 large white onion
100ml plant milk
2 tbsp gram flour or other bean/corn/potato flour
Olive oil for frying
To serve:
1 spring onion, chopped
3 tbsp good quality balsamic glaze/reduction
Remove the bottom 5mm of the asparagus spears and discard. Then cut the bottom 3cm of woody stalk off and set aside.
Using a peeler, peel off ribbons of the courgette until no more can be removed. Set aside the remaining courgette.
Mix the remaining asparagus ingredients and soak the courgette ribbons, making are all the ribbons have sauce on. Set aside to marinade.
Preheat the grill to 180C.
Taking one asparagus spear at a time, wrap 3 marinated ribbons around each stalk. This requires some care. Place the wrapped spears on a baking tray. Repeat the same process with the remaining spears. Set aside the leftover marinade for use later.
Grill the wrapped asparagus spears for 20 minutes, turning halfway.
As the asparagus spears grill, cube and boil the potato until cooked, roughly 8 minutes. As the potatoes cook, finely chop the leftover asparagus and courgette. Skin and olive the onion and fry the chopped asparagus, courgette and onion on a medium heat with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, until the onion has softened around 5-10 minutes - then remove from heat.
When the potatoes are cooked, drain them and run under cool water, then mash. Add the plant milk, gram flour, remaining marinade and fried asparagus, courgette and onion to the mashed potatoes, mixing well.
Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and place 2 tablespoons of the potato mix in the pan. Use a rubber spatula to form the potato into a rough patty shape, leaving space for 5 more. Repeat the process with the remaining mix, making 6 similar sized patties. Fry the patties for 5 minutes on each side so they brown up well.
Serve 2 patties with 5 wrapped asparagus spears per person, drizzled in good quality balsamic glaze and sprinkled with the chopped spring onion.
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