I just discovered the most amazing new… food? Dish? Flavor? Technique?Not sure what you would call it, but I am sending serious gratitude over to Lori at The Recipe Girl all the same.
Roasted lemons.
She featured them a day or 2 ago in a dish with chicken and olives.I was immediately intrigued, but my dislike of olives is strong enough that I figured I needed to find a different way to use them.
Enter the farmers’ market.While there on Saturday I picked up asparagus and spring onions.In the meantime, I hauled out some frozen beef tenderloin we had leftover (uncooked—the cut was too big) from Christmas, and I made a potato gratin.The gratin needs serious work, the beef was really, really good but nothing very interesting (pan seared), so I am not going to bother sharing them, but the vegetable dish was spectacular.
If, like me, you really like lemon but frequently find it just a little too acidic on its own—but don’t want to weigh it down with butter or oil—you must try roasting lemons the next time you roast veggies.It was THAT GOOD.Deeper, richer, more lemony and yet less acidic, it is a party in your mouth.I swear.And best of all, since it is all roasted together, there is no separate sauce to make.
Roasted Asparagus & Spring Onions with Roasted Lemons and Asiago Shavings
Ingredients
Asparagus
Green onions
1-2 lemons, sliced
Olive oil, sea salt and pepper
Asiago cheese, shredded
Clean and dry the asparagus and onions.Lay them out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.Roll them in the olive oil, coating them on all sides.Sprinkle salt and pepper over them.Place lemon slices all around them and on top of them.Roast at 400-450 for 10-25 minutes, depending on thickness of veggies and what else you might have going on in the oven (and depending on how dark you want them—I was coordinating with other dishes so mine did not get as dark as they normally would).Turn them halfway through.
Before serving, sprinkle with Asiago shavings and be sure to drizzle with any accumulated juices on the pan.Warn your husband that the lemon slices are not yellow squash so that he will enjoy the lemon rather than getting a somewhat sour surprise.
Pretty funny about John’s sour surprise!
I have asparagus and lemons and this sounds like a nice thing to do to them. I like roasted lemons too but forgot all about it. Do you think I could use parmigiano-reggiano instead? Or should I just skip the cheese altogether – no asiago in the house.
Absolutely you could use Parm–we just happen to be a big time Asiago family. I would expect most people to use Parm actually.
On behalf of John though, who is practically the official Asiago ambassador he likes it so much, I am going to encourage you to try it in any recipe where you would use Parm and see what you think. I had it on a Caesar salad and have never gone back. I keep Parm but don’t use it much.
I think I have had it and liked it fine, but not in a raving way. Maybe I’ll try it again if I remember to pick it up.
You totally convinced me! I was intrigued by Lori’s post the other day, but after reading your post, I decided to do it. We had some asparagus and green garlic in our CSA box this week. It’s presently all roasting together with the lemons right now. The smell is absolutely divine. I’ll make some turbot to serve with it tonight. Thanks for posting about it!
Hmmm…I roast a lot of my vegetables that way, and have even done a roasted lemon vinagrette from time to time. It has never crossed my mind to combine the two…I’ll have to give it a try!
Hey Laura- yum. Love what you did with them. I’m going to have another one for you sometime soon. Last night I roasted green beans with garlic, lemon zest and olive oil. After roasting, you toss them with lemon juice, more zest and toasted pine nuts. Top it with Parm. too. It was fab.
Thanks for the idea – it smelled AMAZING and tasted great too! And although this is generally how I make asparagus (except for the lemon part), I had never thought to put cheese over them — really outstanding that way. Mmm.