How To Clean Asparagus ?

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All of us know how important it is to have asparagus because of its nutritional value. Asparagus contains vitamins like A, C, E and also K. Apart from vitamins, it also has thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, phosphorus, copper, manganese and selenium. Iron, magnesium, zinc and even dietary fibers are the other important nutrients that are present in this single vegetable. And on top of all these, it serves the purpose of an excellent anti-oxidant and anti-carcinogen. What more can one asks for? Regular consumption of asparagus will provide you with all the essential nutrients. More..

How To Clean Asparagus ?

Do you know that vegetables contain dirt and unseen bacteria, no matter how clean they appear to be? Therefore, it is very important to clean them thoroughly before consumption. Washing any vegetable is not that a difficult job, but it does require patience. Simply putting them in water and draining them out will not do any good. Let us see how an asparagus is cleaned.

The foremost thing you need to do is get hold of a piercing knife and strip the small scales located on the sides of the asparagus stems. As you tear them off, you would probably notice some amount of sand and grit held there. These should be cleaned properly. If left unnoticed, sometimes you may find grit still present even after cooking. An asparagus that has very thick outer covering is mostly difficult to wash. A lot of sand and grit can be seen there too. The best thing to do in such cases is to simply discard these thick outer coverings by peeling them off with a strong vegetable peeler.

Most of the people do not know the process of cleaning an asparagus. Hence, like any other variety of vegetable they tend to dip it in first warm water and then again clean it in cold water. Well, with asparagus you should be cautious enough. Never dip it in warm water. That may extract the essential nutrients from the vegetable leaving it deficient of essential nutrients.

The next step is to wash the stems properly by changing the water many times. While washing it under water, you should be lifting them repeatedly. By doing this you will be able to remove all the sand and dirt that settles down in the container where you wash them. When you wash them under flowing water, hold the stems at the one end and bend it slightly with another hand. This might result in breaking of the soft stems. Collect these stems and then use for soups.