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I’ve had the ingredients on hand for this for a week but didn’t make it until today. Actually, I had not remembered that I needed two eggs for an unmade recipe and had only one egg left in the fridge, so I had to cut the sauce recipe in half. There was still sauce left over, so no worries.

I tried making my own breadcrumbs, and I have to tell ya, it was a pain. More difficult/time consuming than I expected. I have recently learned about panko breadcrumbs and plan to try those the next time I make this.

The original recipe calls for mayo in the sauce, but I’m not a big fan of mayo. We don’t have any on hand and we wouldn’t use it for anything else, so I just left it out (as you’ll see below), and the sauce was still quite tasty. It also called for asparagus and broccoli, but our broccoli went bad before I made these so we only used asparagus. After making the recipe as noted below, we had egg, breadcrumbs, and dipping sauce left, so this will easily make more than the dozen spears listed.

Parmesan-Crusted Veggies & Sweet Onion Sauce

ingredients

• 12 asparagus spears, washed and ends snapped off
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cups of seasoned bread crumbs (if using plain crumbs, just season with salt and pepper, and italian spices, ie: onion, garlic, parsley, basil, paprika, etc.)
• 1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 tablespoon oil or butter
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 tablespoon spicy mustard
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1. Snap ends off of asparagus.
2. In separate bowls, place beaten eggs and bread crumb/parmesan cheese mixture. I used the tray the asparagus came in for the egg and a dish for the breadcrumb mixture. Later I noticed that the recipe called for the stalks to be cut in half. Would have made this step simpler.
3. Coat each stalk in the egg wash, transfer to the bread crumb mix and coat, then place on a cookie sheet. I didn’t spray or otherwise prepare the sheet and didn’t have issues with sticking.
4. Bake in oven at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until golden and crispy.
5. While asparagus is baking, heat oil or butter in a pan on medium heat. Add the onions, sugar, salt, and pepper. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally until onions caramelize, 12-15 minutes.
6. Transfer onions to a blender or food processor. Add the vinegar, honey, and mustard; blend until almost smooth.
7. Transfer to a bowl, and mix in the yogurt.

You get two-for-one today!

There is an Ethiopian restaurant in town that The Big Man and I have long been fans of. They have soup called shorba that we both love. We have said for a long time that we need to find a recipe. We have tried a couple and they weren’t any good. Finally, we found a recipe that makes something pretty close to what we have when we’re out. But it called for berbere, an Ethiopian spice. That is not readily available, so we made that as well from a recipe on Epicurious. I didn’t note where the shorba recipe is from. If you recognize it, let me know — I’d like to attribute it.

Berbere (Ethiopian Spice Mix)

• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
• 1/2 cup ground dried New Mexico chiles
• 1/4 cup paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Finely grind fenugreek seeds in an electric coffee/spice grinder. Stir together with remaining ingredients until combined well.

Berbere keeps in an airtight container, chilled, 3 months.

We found the fenugreek and the ground dried New Mexico chiles at Sprouts, a local health food store.

Shorba

• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp berbere or curry powder
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1½ cups vegetable broth
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• ¼ cup brown or green lentils
• 1 Yukon Gold potato, diced
• ¼ cup whole wheat orzo pasta

Over medium-high heat, saute the onion until it is brown. Reduce the heat to medium.

Add the carrot, ginger, garlic, curry powder, and fenugreek, sauteing them for about 1 minute.

Add the veggie broth and tomato paste, stirring until the tomato paste is thoroughly combined with the broth. Bring the soup to a simmer. Stir in the lentils and potato. Once the soup comes back to a simmer, cover the pot and reduce the heat to low.

Cook the soup for 35 minutes.

Add the orzo; cook according to package directions.