Spargel Season in Germany

I gotta feeling… that tonight’s gonna be a good night…
Can I get a ‘Whoop Whoop‘ please? Spargel is back baby! All of Germany goes mad for white asparagus at this time of the year – Spargel huts appear, supermarkets have entire areas dedicated to this tasty veggie and every restaurant and bar around is serving the delicious dish.

I actually remember when I was 15 and visiting my German friend’s house in Hannover. Her mother brought out some Spargel and I looked at it confused – I’d never seen it before and I was at the ‘not too keen on any kind of vegetable or fruit teenager‘ phase. But I didn’t want to be rude and so I had a bite. After that I probably did seem rude, as I shovelled one after the other into my mouth. YUM! Basically when you add homemade Hollandaise sauce and some boiled potatoes on the side with a dash of homegrown parsley (yup – managed not to kill it yet…) it’s like heaven on a plate.
This year we haven’t had the time to go to a real farm, so supermarket bought goodies will have to do. I think because you can only get it in Germany for a few weeks of the year, it makes this veggie so special that the whole country goes crazy for it. So we got involved and made my favourite version of the white asparagus: SOUP! I used this recipe – it says preparation 20 minutes but they are completely lying – more like an hour with all the peeling – it’s exhausting and picky work and I’d recommend getting your bunch at the market and asking them to take the peel off as it was a nightmare. There’s still tons of little peel stripes in the soup and totally ruins it. I came across this site on my search as well, so next time I’m making boiled or fried Spargel I will keep all the bits that are normally thrown away from the sides and bottom of the Spargel and make more soup . Our friend has kindly invited us to a Spargel Party on Wednesday night, so looks like I’m going to be feasting on white asparagus a lot! I love this season!! 🙂