Asparagus Casserole

If you need a simple side that can sit in the oven while you get everything else ready for dinner, this asparagus casserole is a good choice. It’s not hard to make at all, and other than uncovering the baking dish halfway through the cooking time, you won’t have to do much once it’s in the oven. You can also customize this recipe if you prefer a different type of cheese, and if you don’t have a lot of time you can make part of the recipe ahead. This is also a good recipe if you’re trying asparagus for the first time. The tender, cooked stalks and cheesy sauce taste great together.

Asparagus Casserole Ingredients

• Asparagus: Fresh is best; Trim the stalks before cooking, because the base of each stalk is too tough and woody to eat.
• Butter: This will give the sauce some flavor and fat, which gives the sauce a smoother texture.
• All-purpose flour: Flour helps thicken the sauce.
• Garlic powder: Add a little savory bite with garlic powder or granulated garlic.
• Half-and-half cream: Half-and-half will make the sauce creamy, but it won’t add that much more fat to the recipe.
• Parmesan cheese: Grated Parmesan gives the dish a lot of flavor.

TOPPING:

• Butter: Melted butter moistens the cracker crumbs in the topping. It will also help the topping become golden brown during baking.
• Ritz crackers: Crumbled Ritz-style crackers are fantastic for casseroles. They have this wonderful buttery flavor and just the right texture to create a crispy topping.
• Parmesan cheese: More grated Parmesan gives the topping a very good, savory flavor. Parmesan and Ritz-style crackers go together very well.

Directions

Step 1: Arrange the asparagus

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Preheat the oven to 400°F. Arrange the asparagus spears in a 13×9-inch baking dish.

Step 2: Mix the cream sauce and assemble the casserole layers

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Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Whisk in the flour and garlic powder, along with some salt and pepper. Gradually whisk in all of the half-and-half cream, and bring the sauce to a low simmer. Cook the sauce for three to four minutes; keep stirring (don’t stop) until the sauce has thickened. Take the sauce off the heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Pour all the sauce over the asparagus in the baking dish.

Step 3: Make the topping and bake the casserole

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Mix the melted butter, Ritz cracker crumbs and grated Parmesan in a small bowl. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the asparagus and sauce, and cover the casserole. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes; then uncover the casserole and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the topping is golden and the asparagus is tender.

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Asparagus Casserole Variations

• Add ham or cooked chicken: If you want to turn this asparagus casserole into a main dish, add some chopped ham or rotisserie chicken to the cream sauce.
• Try different cheeses: This recipe uses Parmesan cheese, but you can experiment with mozzarella, gruyere, fontina and other cheeses.

How to Store Asparagus Casserole

Store leftover asparagus casserole in the refrigerator. Cover the dish tightly, and eat the rest of the casserole within three to four days.

Can you make asparagus casserole ahead of time?

You can prepare the dish through Step 2 and store it in the refrigerator, covered tightly, for up to two days. Take it out of the refrigerator when you start preheating the oven so that it has a chance to warm up a little. Make the topping as directed in Step 3 and bake. Careful: If you’ve added leftover chicken or ham to the sauce, the meat should have a couple of days left in its shelf life. In other words, if you’ve added cooked chicken that had already been stored for a couple of days, you’ll need to bake the casserole immediately. Otherwise, you’d be storing the leftover meat for too long, which wouldn’t be safe.

Asparagus Casserole Tips

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What’s the best way to trim asparagus?

You can trim asparagus by either slicing or breaking off the ends. To slice, take off about 1 inch of the bottom, or wherever the whitish part of the stalk turns green. To break off the end, all you have to do is bend the stalk and you’ll soon see the point where the stalk wants to snap. Just bend the stalk until it breaks. If you haven’t cooked with asparagus before, here are some tips on how to prepare asparagus and how to tell if asparagus has gone bad.

Can you use canned asparagus instead of fresh?

You can use canned or frozen asparagus that’s been thawed if you don’t have fresh asparagus. However, the texture of the final dish will be softer because the canned and thawed stalks won’t have the same crispness that fresh, raw stalks do.

What can you serve with this asparagus casserole?

What you serve this with depends on whether you’re turning this into a main or a side. If it’s going to be a side, this asparagus casserole pairs nicely with roast chicken; try this roast chicken with vegetables recipe. If you’re turning this into a main dish, especially if you’re adding chicken or ham, pair it with rice and a green salad. This seasoned brown rice pilaf would be a tasty choice.