Roasted Asparagus

I have sort of accidentally discovered what could be the most delicious asparagus preparation method.  The secret is in the oil!

After eating leftovers most of the week, I was craving something hot and homemade.  I decided on a simple 3 ingredient dinner:  meat, veggie, grain.  I threw a couple of chicken thighs, coated in chipotle spice mix, in the oven for the meat portion of the meal.  I tried my hand at making red quinoa again, which turned out pretty good this time around, as the grain.  For the veggie part, I wanted some asparagus.  Since I had the oven going for the chicken thighs, I decided to roast it.

After looking at a bunch of recipes online, I was going to do something a bit more fancy than just toss the asparagus in oil and roast.  My plan was to cut the asparagus into thirds, toss with olive oil, roast for a bit, then sprinkle some grated asiago cheese on top, and finish roasting until cheese was melted.

I veered from this plan almost immediately!  I decided to not cut the asparagus and simply laid it out on a baking sheet.  Now that it was bigger than the bowl I was going to use to toss it with olive oil, I decided to just sprinkle the oil on instead.  As I was reaching for the oil, a though ran through my head about using sunflower seed oil instead and I ran with that thought.  I put the asparagus into the oven where the chicken thighs were roasting.

When I took the asparagus out to sprinkle the cheese on top, I was greeted with a wonderful aroma and just had to try one out.  As soon as I bit into my first stalk, I knew that I struck gold!  It was the most delicious asparagus I've ever had.  I put the cheese back in the fridge and never regretted the decision.

Sometimes the best things are the simplest.  A snap decision to use a different oil lead me to discover mouth-watering goodness.