Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’ve joined me today!
This week, I am celebrating all things asparagus, which is my hands down FAVORITE vegetable. I just think they taste good, but I’m so, so glad that they’re also really good for you. Let’s take a closer look at the nutritional benefit of this bright green gem, shall we?
Depending on what site you look at on the internet, asparagus are considered to be a “superfood,” but let’s just focus on the health benefits and leave the labels aside for now:
Asparagus serve up an impressive amount of vitamin K and folate. In one serving, you can get 57% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin K and 34% of your RDI of folate. Asparagus are also a good source of vitamins C, A and E, potassium and phosphorus.
Asparagus are rich in flavonoids, which aid in reducing inflammation and blood pressure, and are linked to aiding in heart health in general. Flavonoids are also linked to lowered rates of cancer and improved immune systems.
Additionally, asparagus are a natural source of the amino acid, asparagine, which helps to regulate blood sugar levels, aids in digestion and provides energy. Finally–and this is really interesting–asparagus are also a natural diuretic, and in ancient times, they were used medicinally to flush the kidneys to help prevent kidney stones, cystitis and UTI’s. WOW!
And I just thought they tasted good!
This week, I’m not only highlighting this glorious vegetable, but I’m featuring sauces that, to be fair, are like gilding the lily because asparagus are so danged good eaten plain. But, gild I shall!
Yesterday, I featured a basic vinaigrette, which adds a nice bit of acid to asparagus’s mild and savory-sweet flavor profile. I like to serve the basic vinaigrette alongside for dipping.
Today’s featured sauce is mayonnaise:
Mayonnaise and aioli (which as far as I can tell is just mayonnaise with garlic) have gotten a bad rap over the years as evil sorceresses out to clog your arteries, cause heart disease and make you fat, and for this reason, I have tended to shy away from using too much mayonnaise. However, when I started doing the research for this article, I wondered why the condiment had gotten such a bad reputation.
The ingredients are: an egg, salt, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard and oil. Hmmmm…what’s bad about that, I wondered? If the oil is laden with saturated fat, then that could explain the bad rap. But, an unsaturated oil should take care of that problem, right?
Years ago, when it first came out, I bought some of the “over-the-counter” mayo made with olive oil and it was absolutely disgusting–made with rancid olive oil, it tasted simply nasty. I threw it away immediately. But, as I was thinking about this post, I asked the question: if one uses very fresh, very high quality olive oil to make mayonnaise, can it really be all that bad for you? Now, as with anything, “T-O-O” is never good, so let’s be clear on that. However, if one is making mayonnaise with really good, healthy ingredients, then how bad can a reasonable amount be?
I recently read a book that beautifully illustrated the French attitude and approach to food and cooking as a part of everyday life. The author asked “why would you buy pre-made mayonnaise from the grocery store when it’s so easy to make yourself?”
Challenge accepted.
And so I went about making my own mayo. Let’s get something straight: the book on French living was right–it is DEAD SIMPLE to make mayonnaise, especially with an immersion blender, which is the method I use in the linked recipe. But making it with a whisk wouldn’t be hard, either.
For my first attempt, I decided to use a really good quality olive oil, an egg from the farmer’s market and a very good small-batch vinegar.
The result was delicious and, I gotta believe, pretty healthy overall–especially since I used only about a tablespoon for dipping my asparagus.
Now–a word on olive oil–or at least extra-virgin olive oil: it has a taste to it. And it tends to have a bitter aftertaste, due to polyphenols, which are naturally occurring plant compounds that give olive oil many of its legendary health benefits. Because mayonnaise is mostly made of oil, a bitter flavor, such as that found in evoo can be off-putting to some. It can be mitigated with chilling, but it won’t go away entirely. I’ve read that light olive oil, not evoo, will have less of the bitterness, but I haven’t tried it.
My next experiment in the wide world of mayo was using a different type of oil–this time, pecan oil, which if you’ve read my blog, you know I absolutely love and swear by. The mayonnaise I made using pecan oil was delicious and again, very simple to make. I now use pecan oil to make my mayo, but sunflower oil would also be delicious–just use your imagination and have fun with this condiment! But please, please, please! use only the freshest ingredients, especially oil. Since mayonnaise is mostly oil, if the flavors are the least bit off or worse yet, rancid, that’s ALL you will taste!
That’s it for today–thanks again for tuning in and I hope you enjoy the recipe for mayonnaise. Tune in tomorrow for a recipe for lemon-butter-dill sauce.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
