The Bread Slice Trick For Taking The Bitterness Out Of Asparagus

Some young children are probably very familiar with the refrain, "eat your vegetables." When it comes to asparagus, there are plenty of healthy incentives to follow through with the advice. According to Eating Well, the benefits of eating asparagus may include everything from lowering blood pressure to reducing "cognitive decline." The outlet explains the vegetable even boasts a compound that might "break down carcinogens." Though the nutrient-rich veggie may offer a lot of perks in the health department, what about that taste?

Consumed raw or cooked and served in a bundle, asparagus has a unique taste. Plant Prosperous compares it to broccoli but notes that asparagus has less earthy flavor notes. If you haven't tried white asparagus yet, according to The Takeout it is even more bitter than the green variety. But, since bitterness isn't for everyone, in the case of asparagus there may be a way to get rid of some of that bitterness.

In the produce section, you've probably come across shades of green, purple, and white asparagus. According to The Takeout, Germany refers to the time of year that last shade of asparagus pops up as "Spargelzeit," or "asparagus time," and festivals are even held across the country in the vegetable's honor. As Travel Awaits explains, a typical way to prepare asparagus in Germany is to cook it, peel it, and serve it with breadcrumbs, browned butter, and hollandaise sauce.

More than just being tasty, those accompaniments might also help offset the bitter flavor in asparagus, and Great British Chefs counts butter, fats, and olive oil as optional food pairings that help balance out the bitterness in the vegetable. The Takeout, on the other hand, found that some German recipes also called for a strategy to remove the bitterness directly from asparagus. The added step in those recipes was to put a piece of bread or a "stale roll" into the water that the asparagus is being boiled in. After doing some investigation with green and white asparagus, The Takeout confirmed that the boiled-with-bread asparagus did indeed have a less bitter taste.

So, you might want to try throwing in a slice of bread the next time you boil asparagus, but we like to think of the kitchen as a safe space, so feel free to keep it better if that's what you're into.