The best sauces for asparagus – 5 recipes for the season

Our favorite sauce recipes for asparagus:

Asparagus season is not just a season here on the Lower Rhine. This is more of a lifestyle from mid-April to St. John’s Day on June 24th. Asparagus farm, new potatoes, ham, hollandaise, done. And that’s exactly where the problem comes: after three weeks of hollandaise, you’re starting to get tired of it. Honest.

At some point while eating asparagus for the umpteenth time, Theres said: “I can’t see the sauce anymore.” She was right. So we sat down and thought about what else was available. What actually grows during asparagus season. Which interprets the soft, almost creamy asparagus differently. And what goes not only with probably the best asparagus, but also with green or purple.

We bought almost everything for this series at the Lindchen farmers market in Uedem-Keppeln, a few kilometers away from us. Asparagus straight from the fields, the first strawberries, herbs, eggs – everything from a single source. Anyone who knows the Lower Rhine probably knows Lindchen anyway. For everyone else: it’s worth it.

Five recipes came out. A quick hollandaise with a hand blender, a hearty crumb sauce with bacon, a herb tartare with wild garlic and grainy cream cheese – and a strawberry chutney that we didn’t take seriously until we tried it. Functions. We also took a trip to Belgium, at least from a culinary point of view, there was a schnitzel platter with Belgian egg and butter sauce.

The nice thing about a series of sauces: you can eat the asparagus several times a week without it getting boring. Today hearty with bacon, tomorrow fresh with herbs, the day after tomorrow fruity with strawberries. This is what the season looks like for us.

Sounds like a crazy idea. Strawberries with asparagus? We were skeptical ourselves. But it’s exactly the combination that makes everyone at the table sit still for a moment. Caramelized sugar, light balsamic vinegar, diced strawberries, fresh basil, briefly boiled. Ready in a quarter of an hour, tastes good warm or cold. Important: Use really ripe, regional strawberries – we got ours fresh from the Lindchen, and the difference to the watery supermarket strawberries is enormous.

Works particularly well with green asparagus because its slightly tart note needs a fruity counterpart. The combination is more daring with white asparagus, but tastes just as good. The strawberry chutney is also a real enrichment for a cheese plate or simply with goat cheese.

→ About the recipe: Strawberry chutney with balsamic vinegar and basil

The classic choice, just without the stress. Instead of a water bath and constant stirring, the hand blender is used. Put the egg yolk, crème fraîche, lemon and a little chervil in a tall container, add melted butter in a thin stream and you’re done. Crème fraîche stabilizes the emulsion – the sauce cannot actually curdle. So if you’ve ever suffered shipwreck with classic hollandaise: here’s your reconciliation.

Goes with everything: white, green and purple asparagus. Also with fish, eggs Benedict or salmon. The chervil brings a slightly aniseed note that simply belongs with spring vegetables. If you can’t find any, tarragon or some dill will also work.

→ About the recipe: Blitz Hollandaise with crème fraîche and chervil

The hearty alternative. Crispy rendered bacon, slightly nutty butter, with a mixture of panko and breadcrumbs that roasts in the pan until golden. Fresh parsley is added at the end. Not a sauce in the classic sense, more of a mixture of crumbs and bacon that hits the soft asparagus with a lot of crunch. Asparagus is rather soft, and that’s exactly where most plates lack something to bite into.

Works particularly well with white asparagus and boiled potatoes. But also with cauliflower or broccoli. By the way, we copied the idea behind it from grandma’s best cauliflower with breadcrumbs and brown butter – only pimped up with bacon and panko.

→ About the recipe: Bacon sauce for asparagus with panko breadcrumbs

The fresh version. Instead of traditionally whipping up a mayo, grainy cream cheese becomes the base. This makes the sauce lighter without losing the creaminess. Wild garlic and chives give the spring note – garlicky, herb-fresh, clean. As long as wild garlic is still available, we believe it belongs in every spring sauce. When the season is over, switch to parsley and more chives or use homemade wild garlic pesto.

The sauce goes well with white and green asparagus, but especially if you already have wild garlic in your menu. It also goes great with cold roast beef, salmon or simply with bread.

→ About the recipe: Tartar sauce for asparagus with wild garlic

Anyone who has ever eaten asparagus in Belgium knows it. There, the classic white asparagus often comes with no hollandaise on the plate, but rather a sauce made from brown butter, hard-boiled eggs and chopped parsley. It sounds unspectacular, but it’s incredibly good. The nutty brown butter carries the whole thing through, the finely chopped eggs add texture and some substance, and the parsley provides a fresh note. If you like, add a pinch of smoked paprika – that gives a nice smoky depth.

We traditionally serve the sauce with the asparagus platter with schnitzel. Combined with boiled potatoes and breaded schnitzel, this is one of our favorite spring meals. By the way, it also works great without schnitzel, just plain with white asparagus and potatoes. The only important thing is that the butter really browns, not just melted. The foaming moment when the whey browns is the point at which the butter develops its nutty flavor.

→ About the recipe in the article: Asparagus platter with schnitzel and Belgian egg-butter sauce

Which sauce suits which occasion can be determined by three questions.

A tip from practice: If you have guests over, make two sauces at once. One classic and one new. This means everyone can find their own taste and the table immediately looks more exciting. We now do it like this every time we eat asparagus – hollandaise plus a second sauce to try. Always works.

If you are looking for even more inspiration for the season, you will find lots of ideas for the main component in our overview of the asparagus season with the top asparagus recipes.

Grab the sauce that appeals to you most – or two of them for the next asparagus evening. If you live near the Lower Rhine, it’s worth a stop at the Lindchen farmers’ market in Uedem-Keppeln: asparagus, strawberries, eggs, herbs, everything from the region and in the quality that makes these sauces really good. We would be really happy if you showed us on Instagram at @gernekochen which combination ends up on your plate. And if you still have cooked asparagus left over, just make our asparagus and potato salad. You can really use up any leftovers.