Roasted Asparagus With Yummy Sauce

(Johnny Autry)

This recipe is reprinted from “Eating from the Ground Up: Recipes for Simple, Perfect Vegetables.” Copyright 2018 by Alana Chernila. Photographs copyright 2017 by Johnny Autry. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Roasted Asparagus With Yummy Sauce

I planted asparagus in my seventh year of living in our house, and I ate my first spear in the tenth. It took me that long because I needed to learn that my garden space and energy should be devoted to the foods I really wanted to eat and couldn’t get for cheap. When organic local asparagus peaked at $8.99 a pound, I knew it was time.

Roasting is far and above my favorite way to cook asparagus. The insides steam and the outsides caramelize, and there are few more beautiful things to me than a baking sheet holding a chorus line of asparagus spears. They really don’t need sauce, but a great sauce can’t hurt, and yummy sauce might be the greatest I know. It made its first appearance with salmon in my book “The Homemade Kitchen,” but I just had to bring it back. The cheesy, ferment-y richness of nutritional yeast blends into a sauce with a flavor that everyone wants more of, yet no one can guess the main ingredient. Use it on sweet potatoes, squash, or green beans, too.

If you’re buying asparagus at the supermarket, pay attention to the heads. If they’ve begun to open, or the feathered top is slimy, look for another bunch. Always wash asparagus well, as grit tends to hide in the feathered layers of each tip.

Serves 4