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I made these asparagus noodles for a dinner party last night and oh my they were so tasty! I love the idea of asparagus noodles. So cool!
Jessica
This recipe is sponsored by DeLallo
Are you ready to be wow-ed?
These are asparagus noodles, as in ASPARAGUS that you shave thinly to look and act like fettuccine noodles. Hoooooly goodness. I am for real. The day I made them, I literally could not shut up about it. I called over everyone in the studio: look at this! look! aren’t they so pretty! hey! you! look look looooook! It’s a magic trick that you can eat.
How To Make Our Asparagus Noodles:
Veg noodles have been having their hot second in the spotlight, but I had never-ever-ever heard of asparagus noodles until I flipped open the most recent Food Network magazine and saw their recipe for Asparagus Noodles with Pesto. EXCUSEMEWHAT? Asparagus as noodles? Okay, alright, catching my breath.
This could be really cool or really weird.
We, the POY team who is always hungry and/or looking for good ideas, decided to give it a try. And after getting jumbo asparagus, testing a few ways of prepping, and working on our skills with the vegetable peeler, I think we finally nailed it. Amiright? Just check those gorgeous paper-thin ribbons.
I don’t want to get too confident here since we did borrow this general idea from them, but I do want to go on record as saying that I think our version is quite a bit better than the Food Network one. We cooked the noodles for a LOT less time because we are all morally opposed to soggy vegetables. We also got rid of the extra greens (asparagus + arugula? all of it cooked? just, ugh. mush factor was out of control.) and swapped the arugula for bacon and peas and Pecorino Romano cheese. ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA.
I also swapped in our favorite jarred pesto since it doubles as an improvement and a shortcut.
It’s spring, guys, so obvi pesto is happening on everything right now. And you know I love homemade pesto! How many times have we bonded over this? Think about it: kale pesto, walnut pesto, magic green sauce which is sort of like a glorified pesto…
But sometimes a girl just needs a jar of (ACTUALLY GOOD TASTING) store-bought pesto in her pantry so she can whip up asparagus noodle magic in no time. This pesto, for us, is a super quick meal-builder that does not sacrifice on quality. If you haven’t picked up on it over the last 50 years that I’ve been a super fan, I’ll remind you again that tippy-top quality (at regular prices) is just the DeLallo way.
We bought this stuff at our local Whole Foods, but I also regularly buy DeLallo products (pesto included) at Cub Foods for those of you who are reppin’ the Midwest with me.
Here’s how I have most enjoyed this salad/noodle situation: as a side for my wild rice burgers. Stay with me.
Sometimes it’s as-is, just served as a little side veg dish, and sometimes it’s more of an add-on to my ever-evolving wild rice burger stackers. I’ll even leave off the peas and bacon and just go for the pesto asparagus noodles, plain jane, over top of the wild rice burger with a fried egg and an obscene amount of chipotle hot sauce. OMG. Please do this for yourself. It can be breakfast OR lunch OR dinner, and it is utterly BEYOND.
Asparagus as noodles, with pesto, peas, bacon, and cheese – verdict: cool.
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Pesto Asparagus Noodles
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Asparagus Noodles with Pesto – shave your asparagus into long noodles just like fettuccine!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds jumbo asparagus
- 1/4 cup DeLallo pesto (more to taste)
- cooked, crumbled bacon
- cooked peas
- grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Instructions
- Cut of the woody ends of the asparagus. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the asparagus into wide ribbons, like fettuccine noodles. You will get to a point with each piece where you can’t shave them any further, leaving a thicker “noodle” of asparagus. I’d recommend just saving those and using them in something else so they don’t mess with your gorgeous paper-thin noodles.
- Heat a little bit of oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the asparagus to the pan in batches, tossing around the pan for no more than 30 seconds to one minute. You want the asparagus to be right between raw and cooked, because once they get too cooked, they will go soggy on you (and… no thanks).
- Toss the semi-cooked asparagus very gently with the pesto in a large bowl. Plate the “noodles” just like you would with normal pasta, and top with bacon, peas, cheese, and extra pesto! Yummy!
Notes
Like most salads, this doesn’t make great leftovers. But you CAN shave the asparagus in advance and just cook it right before serving.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: asparagus noodles, pesto noodles, asparagus recipe
This post was sponsored by DeLallo and their delicious Pesto!
OK we tried it after meaning to for the last few weeks and it was genuinely delicious, it definitely needs the bacon and pecorino cheese to balance the dish out though, also oils and fats help all the oil soluble vitamins get absorbed by your system quicker.
hmmm, any suggestion for a savory substitution for bacon pieces?
This is a super cool idea.
How well does this reheat?
Hi Devin! Not super great – if you’re going to eat some later, we’d probably recommend waiting to cook and assemble.
I will make this pretty much as intended. It is to escape peas, not embrace them.
This looks amazing! Definitely will be trying it sometime this week. Thinking I’ll add some bites of chicken into it to make it more of a main course.
Also, I have a ton of carrots that I need to use up. Any thoughts on peeling those and adding them into the asparagus noodles?
Thanks so much!
Love the addition of chicken! I think carrots could work – would definitely add a nice pop of color. 🙂
You really do great work, all of you ! So happy to have you and your creations ! Keep on rocking people …..
Your snaps are always excellent, that is why whenever I see those snaps, I feel hungry. Ha ha,
But your recipes also surprise me because I always come up with great food with such few common ingredients.
Very tasty recipe and creative with the asparagus noodles. Tried something similar with zucchini and yellow squash shaved like pasta (store bought). Any suggested substitutes for the peas ?
You could maybe sub in some broccoli, otherwise I’d just omit them!
Great recipe!!! Thanks for sharing 😛
Super tasty and low fat 🙂
I made these asparagus noodles for a dinner party last night and oh my they were so tasty! I love the idea of asparagus noodles. So cool!
Glad you enjoyed it, Jessica!
I am wondering what your most used lens is for your food photographs. Which is your main lens??
Hi Jenny! I’d recommend checking out Lindsay’s recommendations in the Shop: https://pinchofyum.com/shop?fwp_shop_categories=photography
wow, nice, happy to see all the protein you added, looks like you made a nice tweak to the Food N. version and am glad you did, thank you for this, especially for taking the time to get it right, good to know how much R&D was put into this!
Thanks for the comment, Sabrina! 🙂
This is a super cool idea. I was wondering how long does it take to make those gorgeous asparagus ribbons?
Hi Teena! It’ll take some time for the whole bunch, but will be easier if they’re jumbo – I’d budget at least 30 mins.
These green pesto pasta and noodles are looking yummy. My kid loves noodles and every week I try to prepare different type of noodle for him. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
OMG, I’m just overly excited that I stumbled upon your website!! Quality recipes at its finest :).
Lindsay! You must have used big ol’ fat asparagus spears. My strands came out pretty skinny and it took my almost an hour to make noodles out of one bunch of asparagus. I used prosciutto instead of bacon and I used your Avocado Basil Pesto (at least I think that was your recipe) that I froze from my garden last summer. It was delicious! But probably not the thing to tackle after washing the windows of our house.
ASPARAGUS NOODLES!!! you are pure genius, lady. jaw on the floor, I’m not over this yet.
Where do you think of these?! Honestly, how many more of your recipes can be added to my weekly rotation?!
Thank youuuuu
Lo
http://www.themixtures.com
It looks so yummy. I love your recipes and I used to test it sometimes.
OMG super amazing recipe! I love it!
These sound wonderful. But I really want to thank you for the nutrition information for your recipes. So helpful.
LOVE this idea! Beautiful photos as always! 🙂
Love, love, love this idea! I absolutely can’t wait to try it as asparagus is one of my all-time favorite spring veggies. Healthy too with all of its detox compounds! And love that the recipe is super easy.
Hope you enjoy it, Stephanie!
Love it! Fabulous idea!