Meatless Monday: Asparagus Wraps

Here's an easy-to-make appetizer that's really yummy.

Asparagus Wraps
Recipe

Yes, the recipe calls for prosciutto, but that can obviously be skipped. What you'll want to do, though, is sprinkle your dough with a bit of salt (while you're at it, I would suggest a bit of pepper, too) and gently press it in before wrapping your asparagus to make up for the saltiness of the prosciutto that will be missing. The recipe suggests sprinkling Parmesan on the finished wraps. I suggest sprinkling your dough (on the side that will touch the asparagus) with a generous amount of Parmesan and gently pressing it in before you cut it into strips. I think you lose less cheese to the baking tray and they're less messy to eat that way.

I've also made this hors d'oeuvre using Pillsbury crescent roll dough. It comes in a reduced-fat version, you don't have to wait for it to thaw, and the final product comes out just as good as with the frozen pastry dough if you ask me. You can even make these ahead of time and set them in the refrigerator. Then you can just pull them out, let them come up to room temperature, and pop them in the oven 10-15 minutes before you want to serve them.

You'll, of course, want to get rid of the tough part of the asparagus before you start your recipe. There are a few different camps on how to do this. Some say - hold the asparagus at each end, bend it until it breaks, keep the side with the head, discard the rest, and repeat for each piece. Others say - that wastes too much perfectly good asparagus and time, and they prefer to just cut 1-2 inches off the bottom of all of their asparagus pieces uniformly. Yet others say - don't waste any of the asparagus and just peel the ends like you would a carrot. I say, it's your asparagus, you decide. So long as your guests aren't stuck trying to find a way to politely spit woody, inedible pieces of vegetable into their cocktail napkins, it hardly matters how you achieve that end.


Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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