Asparagus, good to eat and good for health.

A vegetable that many of us love to eat when in season is asparagus.

Asparagus is present on our tables since two thousand years ago, and is a vegetable that has a lot of good properties, vitamins and minerals very important for our body such as folic acid, useful for pregnant women, and vitamins A, B , C and E.

As onion and garlic, asparagus belong to Liliaceae family and are composed by 90% of water. They have antioxidant and significant diuretic properties and are very indicated in diets because 100 grams of them contains just 25 kcalories.

Perhaps many of us do not know that asparagus is also one of the most useful vegetable to eat for   diabetics people: in fact they contain high doses of chromium that acting  on insulin helps to lower this level in our body and brings it back to normal . Asparagus is also important to prevent different types of cancer, in fact they fight free radicals and promoting the elimination of harmful substances from our body.

Here you are one of my recent recipe, that uses asparagus in a little different way than usual, that does not require cooking and it’s also very easy to make. And, of course, it’s delicious. A raw asparagus salad, served with Parmesan cheese and lemon juice.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make it:

– Asparagus, about 5 per person

– Extra virgin olive oil to taste for seasoning

– Salt

– Pepper

– Parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon per person

– Lemon juice, about 2 tablespoons per person

– Grated lemon zest for garnish

Preparation

The hardest part of this recipe is definitely cutting the asparagus.

Before proceeding with cutting, you’ll need to wash them and remove the hardest part of the stem. This operation can be made by taking the asparagus between the hands, placing it horizontally, and bending it down: the final part that will break, will be one that you must throw, while the other will be the one you’ll need to use.

If you have knives skills, you’ll need to slice asparagus very thin, at about 1 or 2 mm. Always be very careful not to get hurt. If you are not skilled in using the knives, use a tool that I find it very useful in the kitchen: the mandolin. Once you cut the asparagus into slices, put them in a bowl and season with the lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Mix all ingredients well and serve as a side dish with a slice of grilled chicken or with a fresh buffalo mozzarella.

@Angelinaincucin