Sauteed Asparagus With Lemon

Sauteed Asparagus with Lemon is a simple side dish that offers a pop of flavor from the lemons and a delicious crunch from the asparagus. Your fam will eat this stuff up!!

We love cooking asparagus as a tasty vegetable side dish!! There are so many health benefits to eating asparagus! It is packed with lots of nutrients and fiber, it also makes for fun bathroom trips after you eat it! That lovely smell it gives your urine (yep I went there)….gives you something interesting to talk about! LOL!!

Ingredients

Here is all you need to make this asparagus recipe in no time.

• Asparagus– fresh, green asparagus. When picking out asparagus, take note of the bottoms of the stems, and make sure they aren’t dried out or too big.
• Olive Oil– for frying asparagus in a pan.
• Lemon Juice– fresh lemon juice is best in this recipe
• Lemon Zest– takes the lemon flavor to the next level.
• Salt and Black Pepper

How to Make Sauteed Asparagus

Let’s walk through the simple steps of how to cook asparagus in a pan on the stovetop.

1. Prepare the pan. Start with a skillet placed over medium high heat. Add in the olive oil and wait until it just starts shimmering in the pan.
2. Cook the asparagus. Place the asparagus into the pan and season with the salt and black pepper. Cook and stir for 5-7 minutes until the asparagus becomes a darker green color and is crispy-tender.
3. Add in the lemon. Turn down the heat and add in the juice of one half of a lemon as well as the lemon zest. Use a lemon zester to easily grate the zest from the lemon skin.
4. Transfer to a serving dish and enjoy!

How to Store Fresh Asparagus

If you have ever bought asparagus and left it in the plastic produce bag it comes in and just put it in the refrigerator, you most likely came back to find it dried out or the tops have become all mushy…basically it is inedible.

The best way to store fresh asparagus is to keep the asparagus in the bundle with the elastic and trim off about an inch from the bottom end with a sharp knife. Fill a large bowl with 1-2 inches of water and stand the asparagus in the water until ready to use. This will keep the asparagus fresh for 3-5 days.

Another way to store the asparagus is to wrap the bottom ends in a wet paper towel and place it into the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator.

How to Cut Asparagus

Always start with fresh asparagus. The trick that works best for me is the bend-and-snap method. The way to know where to cut the bottom thicker part of the asparagus is to slightly bend the asparagus at the bottom, it will naturally fold and snap.

You can totally use 2 hands to do this, I just had one for the asparagus and one for the camera!!

Next, take the spear that you just snapped and place it next to the bunch of clean asparagus.

Line up all the heads of the asparagus and run a sharp knife along the stems trimming them at the same place as the snapped spear.

For this Asparagus recipe, you will want to cut the asparagus into thirds.

Just make two equal slices across the asparagus spears. Now they are ready for the pan!!

Recipe updated March 25, 2024 with addition information and tips, recipe remains the same.