Make the best of the short asparagus season with these mouth-watering recipes.

Have you ever taken a long flight? One where you travel from one end of the continent to the other? Or a trans-continental flight? How do you feel when you finally unfold yourself and get off the plane? I personally look and feel dry, aged and tired!

That is the same feeling our fresh fruits and veggies have when they make a long out-of-season trip. Peaches in January are mealy and flavorless, and asparagus in November is tough and stringy. But asparagus in the spring? It’s almost like a completely different vegetable. Local asparagus in the spring is plump, tender, and bright. I’ve always enjoyed springtime asparagus, but since we moved to an asparagus growing region we eat asparagus almost every day during harvest.

I have to admit, I am a little bit lazy when it comes to cooking asparagus. Usually it gets one of these three treatments:

Steamed: Barely steamed in the microwave and sprinkled with lemon-pepper.

Roasted: Drizzled with olive oil and salt and roasted until done.

Stir-fried: Cut up and added to almost any stir-fry recipe.

My eldest son used to layer a flour tortilla with a slice of cheese and several spears of asparagus, roll the whole thing up, and pop it in the microwave until the cheese melted. Asparagus Tortilla Roll-Ups were his springtime go-to after school snack.

If you are feeling a bit more adventurous, and aren’t quite as lazy as me, these asparagus recipes all sound wonderful.

Emma, over at A Beautiful Mess, created this creamy Asparagus-potato soup. Perfect for a cool spring evening, but I bet it would be just as good served cold too. Maybe for a Mom’s Day brunch?

Slow Butter Braised Asparagus from Steamy Kitchen looks and sounds decadent. Asparagus + butter, what’s not to like!

Frittatas are one of my favorite “nothing in the house to eat” meals. You can make a frittata from almost anything. Jessica over on My Clean Kitchen came up with this fancy, but easy to prepare Asparagus and Goat Cheese Frittata. I will definitely be making this.

Even the kids will delight in Crispy Baked Asparagus, a breaded asparagus recipe from Tastefully Simple.

If you are looking for a more grown-up version of my son’s tortilla creation, you won’t go wrong with Parmesan Asparagus Phyllo Roll-Ups found on the Stone Gable blog. They would be lovely for an afternoon tea.

If you get carried away with the asparagus harvest like I do, you can always pickle it! Find my Small Batch Pickled Asparagus recipe on this site. Pickled Asparagus is a welcome holiday gift too, one that you can prepare in May or June and reduce last minute winter-time shopping.