Baked Asparagus with Eggs and Parmesan

Simple, hearty, and delicious; individual portions make these Baked Asparagus with Eggs and Parmesan easy to serve and a little elegant too! This is exactly how I serve asparagus as a main! Dip some crusty bread in the soft yolks – it’s scrumptious!!

It’s no secret that we love asparagus in our home. I used to only buy it when it was in season here in Ontario, which is late May and June, but we love it so much, we now buy it whenever the mood strikes. With increasing grocery prices, asparagus out of season is like living a life of luxury, but I can’t resist when it comes to this Baked Asparagus with Eggs and Parmesan!

COSTCO HAS GREAT ASPARAGUS!

If you’re in Canada and looking for asparagus during the off-season period, then you should try Costco. They sell a 2.2 pound bag of fresh asparagus for less than seven dollars. That’s a lot of asparagus for that price – especially here in Canada!

From that one bag, I can get about two or three meals for the three of us, depending on what that meal might be. In most cases, when serving asparagus as a side, I usually see about three or four spears. Not in the Thomas-Ewing household! We want at least ten of those spears all to ourselves!

When it comes to a dish like this Baked Asparagus with Eggs and Parmesan, you have two options. You can certainly serve it as a side dish, or you can serve it as a main. This particular dish for me was a main. Each of those square baking dishes had ten spears of asparagus and two eggs. That’s a light dinner with calories to spare! If you’re super hungry, serve this dish with baked chicken breast.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE:

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this Baked Asparagus with Eggs and Parmesan recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Asparagus – This recipe makes three servings, so you will need about 10 spears of asparagus for each person.
• Butter – You can use salted or unsalted butter for this recipe. If you use unsalted butter, you might need to add a bit more salt.
• Olive Oil – I like to use extra virgin light olive oil so that the flavour of the oil is muted.
• Eggs
• Parmesan – If you can afford it, buy a wedge of parmesan and grate it yourself. I know it can be quite expensive, so if you want to keep this dish budget-friendly, you can use canned parmesan if needed.
• Salt and Ground Black Pepper

HOW TO PREPARE THIS DISH

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Place three baking dishes on a baking sheet and add one teaspoon of olive oil to each dish.  Use a pastry brush to spread the olive oil around the inside of the baking dishes and set them aside.

Bring a small pot of water to a hard boil  Add a dash of salt and then add the chopped asparagus.  Stir and allow the water to return to a boil. Once it does, remove the pot from the heat. Immediately drain the asparagus and transfer it to a large bowl of cold water.  (This will stop the cooking process and save your asparagus from wilting.)

Drain the cold water well from the asparagus.  Distribute the asparagus among the three prepared baking dishes.  Top the center of each baking dish with a teaspoon of butter. Season with salt. Crack two eggs into each baking dish, being extra careful not to break the yolks. Bake for 7 minutes.

Remove from oven and top each portion with one tablespoon of parmesan cheese and 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper. Return to oven and bake for 7 more minutes. Serve immediately.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH THIS DISH

Speaking of chicken breasts, I know there are many of us out there – myself included! – who doesn’t really care for plain old baked or grilled chicken breast. Let’s face it, it’s pretty boring! But, I’ve got a fix for that! Go ahead and check out my 6 Seasoning Blends for Baked Chicken. There’s a seasoning blend in that post to suit everyone’s personal preference.

There are a few opinions on how to properly cook asparagus. To be completely honest, I have not tasted an asparagus that I didn’t like! Some people prefer softer asparagus, while others prefer crunchy asparagus. In terms of preference, I fall somewhere in the middle. I don’t like undercooked asparagus and I certainly don’t like overcooked either!

That’s why I will often blanch my asparagus before adding it to recipes. For this particular recipe, I blanched the asparagus for just a short while to partially cook it and to bring out that bright green flavour. If you want a firmer, crunchier asparagus, you can go ahead and skip the blanching step.

WHAT IS BLANCHING AND SHOULD YOU BLANCH ASPARAGUS?

As an FYI, or a public service announcement, allow me to introduce you, the home cook, to the term blanching.  Contrary to popular belief, blanching does not describe the act of playing the role of Blanche on The Golden Girls.  Nope, no matter how badly you want to be her and look for any excuse to take on her persona, in the culinary world, blanching does not refer to adopting a southern accent, dressing provocatively, having loose morals, or using your sexuality to get what you want.

Blanching is a cooking process where food, usually a fruit or a vegetable, is submerged in boiling water and left to partially cook for just a minute or two.  In essence, by blanching a vegetable, you are doing so to partially cook it, remove any strong taste or odours, such as in cabbage or onions, and revitalize the vegetable and bring back its bright, vibrant colour.

HOW TO BLANCH ASPARAGUS AND OTHER VEGETABLES

Bring the water to a rolling boil, add the vegetables and push them down into the water.  After a minute or two, remove the vegetable and immediately plunge them into a large bowl of ice-cold water.  In fact, the colder the water, the better the result.  Fill a large bowl halfway up with water and then add a bunch of ice.  When you add the blanched veggies to the bowl of water, ideally, there should still be ice floating in there as well.  This is an ice bath and is set up before you add the veggies to the boiling water.

DINNER IS READY!

When all is said and done, Baked Asparagus with Eggs and Parmesan is a great dish – side or main – that has so much flavour. The asparagus is seasoned with salt and pepper and baked with butter, so yum! Then, there are those two baked eggs on top with those creamy yolk centers. And, of course, who could forget the additional cracked black pepper and that saltiness from the parmesan cheese!? So easy, so fast, and so delicious!

If you’re looking for more asparagus inspiration – you know, just in case you have gone ahead and purchased that 2.2 pound bag of asparagus from Costco – look no further than right here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen!

MORE ASPARAGUS RECIPES

Try my Asparagus and Goat Cheese Pizza and change up your pizza night dramatically. There’s even a very easy pizza dough recipe in that post as well! If you’re looking for an appetizer, why not try my Wrapped Asparagus Spears with Garlic Butter and Parmesan – everyone loves these! And for side dishes, in addition to this Baked Asparagus with Eggs and Parmesan, try this Lemon Butter Asparagus or this Honey Soy Asparagus with Black Sesame Seeds.

Oh! I almost forgot! Two awesome salads use asparagus as the star ingredient as well. I make these two over and over again and cannot decide which one I like better. First, there’s my Roasted Asparagus Lemon Butter Pasta Salad, and then there’s my Asparagus and Egg Pasta Salad recipe. Both are so yummy!

There you have it, Dear Reader – a whole bunch of recipes to inspire you and to help you get your asparagus fill. Asparagus season is just around the corner, so you have time to plan way ahead. Or, you know, just hit up your local Costco!