Savory Asparagus Muffins

LUCY BURDETTE:  John and I are back in New England for the summer or at least part of it, and looking forward to our garden. While I have been writing madly, John has been preparing the dirt in our beds. The first thing that comes up like mad is our asparagus patch. We have eaten a lot of it already, usually roasted. But I  wanted to try something baked, that would go with a big pot of vegetable soup. I found a recipe for asparagus sour cream muffins on Genius Kitchen, and set to work tweaking. Since we have so much asparagus and hate to waste any, I started by roasting an entire pan of stalks. This is easy: Roll them in a little olive oil and bake for 15 minutes or so at 375. For this muffin recipe, I used about half of them or 15 stalks. The remainder I cut up and we added them to our salad. Delicious!

Ingredients

15 or so stalks of fresh asparagus, roasted
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Five tablespoons of oil (I used canola)
3 teaspoons baking powder (I use low sodium as usual)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons freshly-ground pepper or to taste
Two eggs
1 cup sour cream (I think plain yogurt would work perfectly well if you prefer that )
2 1/4 cup flour

Bake the asparagus and cut into bite-size pieces.

Mix the dry ingredients together--salt, pepper, flour, baking powder. Make a well in the center and set this aside.

Beat the eggs with the sour cream and stir in the cheese. Mix in the oil. Scrape this mixture into the well in the dry ingredients, and stir gently until combined. Stir in the asparagus.

 

Bake in a paper-lined muffin tin for 18 to 20 minutes at 375 until browning on top. 

The batter is very thick and you may suspect you left something out, but you didn’t! Next time, I think I will try the yogurt and possibly sauté some leeks in butter and stir that in for a little extra kick. And make sure your eaters do not think they are getting a sweet muffin!


​ABOUT A DEADLY FEAST:

Before Key Zest food critic Hayley Snow's family descends on the island for Thanksgiving and her wedding to heart throb Detective Nathan Bransford, she has one last assignment--a review of a seafood tasting tour conducted by her friend Analise Smith. But when one of the tourists collapses on the last stop, Analise begs her to investigate before the police destroy her business and shut down the local Key West eateries on her tour. Pressure mounts when Analise calls a second time to request that Hayley meet with Chef Martha Hubbard, who prepared key lime pies for the tasting tour and is terrified that someone poisoned her pies to ruin her reputation. Chefs all around town are preparing their versions of a Thanksgiving feast, but with a murderer on the loose, will Hayley and her friends have anything left to be thankful for?
Praise for Lucy Burdette's Key West mysteries:​

“There’s a lot to love about this series—deft plotting, likeable characters, and an ending that always satisfies. But one of the things I love the best is how the author transports her readers to Key West with every page, describing real landmarks and restaurants with such realism that I feel I’m actually there. Magical and delicious fun!”
—Suspense Magazine

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib) has published 17 mysteries, including the latest in the Key West food critic series, A Deadly Feast (Crooked Lane Books, May 2019.)  Read more at https://lucyburdette.com You can also find Lucy on Facebook and Instagram.