I love all the fresh summer food and the feeling of picking fresh herbs straight from my balcony. I live in the middle of the city, in Estonia, but I am fortunate to have a huge balcony, so I grow all kinds of edible plants myself - fresh lettuce, parsley, peas, dill, basil, and even courgettes and tomatoes.
I promise you – it is worth your time because they taste so much better than store-bought veggies and are always extra fresh. This year my basil is going strong, and I have already made several patches of pesto and used the leaves in at least 30 spring rolls. Today I a sharing a recipe that features asparagus with lemon-basil crumb, but the same crumb would also work very well with cauliflower.
For me, just vegetables and this delicious crumb is enough for a light dinner, but I imagine it would also taste good as a side next to grilled fish.
Delicious Roasted Asparagus with Lemon-Basil Crisp
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 20
Ingredients:
14 oz green asparagus
1 tbsp olive oil
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
The zest and juice of half a lemon
10 big basil leaves
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 430 F.
Cut the wooden stems off the asparagus, sprinkle with oil and salt lightly. Roast for about 13 minutes.
At the same time, prepare the crumb. Heat the olive oil on a pan, add panko and fry until crispy on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper.
Mix chopped basil, lemon zest and lemon juice.
If the asparagus is roasted, serve it on the plate.
Right before serving mix the lemon-basil mix with crispy breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the asparagus. Eat quickly!
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves healthy food and cooking and for her, these two are often the same thing. Cooking meals from scratch, you know exactly what goes in it and even without holding back with sugar or fat we end up using a lot less compared to ready-made frozen stuff from the supermarket.
She does love to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!" Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: http://www.kahvliga.ee/.
Eat healthy with recipes like these and practice yoga to keep your body and mind in optimal shape. Never tried yoga before? Explore with this entry level 5-class Beginner Yoga 101 series!