Casseroles can be comfort food: warm, full of calories, and plenty of tasty ingredients that play well together.
Casseroles can also be the worst examples of cookery to come out of your kitchen, particularly if the components aren’t chosen with a bit of care. In this case… eggs and asparagus don’t really fill me with confidence.
- 1 large can asparagus spears
- 4 hard-boiled eggs, grated
- 1 cup medium white sauce
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs or cheese cracker crumbs
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Arrange half the asparagus in bottom of casserole. Then a layer of eggs, then a layer of cheese. Spoon in half the sauce.
- Repeat in alternate layers.
- Top with bread crumbs (or the cheese cracker crumbs) and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serves 8.
I must admit, though, I’m looking forward to a casserole that uses real white sauce instead of cream of mushroom soup.
Ever grated a hard-boiled egg? It’s a little strange, but worked better than I had expected — the egg didn’t just dissolve, it more or less turned into tiny egg chunks. (Just use the larger holes on your grater, not the smaller ones…)
We really have a complete meal here. Protein from eggs, dairy from cheese, vegetables from the canned asparagus — like any good casserole, you really don’t need anything to go with.
But having had adventures with canned asparagus in the past, I sent Buzz out to get some chicken sandwiches just in case. Maybe this would transform the canned asparagus into something delicious. But maybe a backup dinner plan was a good idea.
Tasting time came, as it inevitably does.
“This looks like it’s going to be pretty good. Kind of like hollandaise?”
“Go for it, optimist. Take the bite.”
“This is not too bad — oh, wait…”
Once he hit the asparagus, it wasn’t “not too bad” anymore.
In order to see if time would improve the casserole, Buzz also sampled some for lunch the day after. If anything, the asparagus had gotten worse with time, and he needed to brush his teeth immediately to deal with a bad case of asparagus breath. With fresh asparagus this could be reasonable; with canned, it’s just bad.
Verdict: Not a favorite with men.
(But the backup chicken sandwiches were yummy.)
From the tasting notes:
Béchamel, cheese, and egg tasted creamy and delicious together. Canned asparagus ruined everything, tasted like wet grass clippings that sat on the lawn for a week.
I think it sounds great. Don’t be mad at me if I try it, anyway. 🙂
Trying this week! Thanks! Your husband is a hottie – keep him!
sounds like it’d be a good sauce to spoon onto fresh asparagus
Or maybe use in a broccoli casserole
But I love canned asparagus! I'd probably love this, too.
I think a different vegetable would work well. Buzz and I were thinking green beans (fresh, frozen, OR canned)…
Good luck 🙂
I don't think that it's possible for canned asparagus to taste very good, and its texture is invariably at least as bad as the taste, usually worse. New item at dollar stores is smallish cans of asparagus… dollar store food isn't invariably bad, but when it is…
Never buy or use canned asparagus. It is just wrong. Blanch a bunch of fresh asparagus and use it or don’t make the dish at all.
AMEN
If cooking like this doesn’t scare him off, nothing will!
Ok I think i’ll give this a try with Trader Joe’s frozen asparagus, as it tastes fresh. Might be ok!
EASIEST WIN. EVER. lol
a s p a r a g u s
Pretty sure this is a mid-century American corruption of a recipe I’ve seen in various French cookbooks. It’s supposed to be something like this:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/boiled_asparagus_with_sieved_eggs_and_caper_vinaigrette/undefined