One In-Season Vegetable, Six Maddeningly Simple Dinners With Little Else

I'm tapping my fingers waiting for asparagus to arrive. It's like the night before Christmas, or worse, the early morning hours when you're not sure whether Santa's come and gone, or might shuffle in yet. So while we're waiting, I thought I'd rehash some of the simplest, most satisfying, no-nonsense ways to turn asparagus and other fresh produce that will soon arrive into meals. Because it'll be too nice outside to worry about it too much.

Plus, so many have asked how to make cooking with fresh produce more efficient, especially for one. What to do with leftover food? There is economy to eating locally and seasonally, when you consider how far you can stretch one bunch of produce. You can cook it throughout the week, and never get bored. All too often we're smitten by more things than we know what to do on a market trip, and end up letting some of our bunches go bad. Save yourself the time, money and head-scratching by focusing on one fetching ingredient at a time. I've practically lived off of all these techniques, or some variation of them, for quite some time, and they never get old.

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