Asparagus With Miso Butter Recipe (2024)

Recipe from David Chang

Adapted by Mark Bittman

Asparagus With Miso Butter Recipe (1)

Total Time
20 minutes
Rating
5(532)
Notes
Read community notes

This combination of miso and butter is natural and delicious, too. Miso butter looks a little like cake frosting and is just as easy to lick off the fingers. With the egg yolk dripping onto the butter and the asparagus spears dipped into the eggy, miso slurry, you're looking at a four-star dish at a neighborhood restaurant — or at home.

Watch our video on how to poach an egg —Mark Bittman

Featured in: THE CHEF: DAVID CHANG; When in Doubt, Add an Egg, Japanese Style

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Ingredients

Yield:2 main course servings or 4 starters

  • 4tablespoons oil or rendered pork or bacon fat
  • 1pound asparagus, trimmed and peeled if necessary
  • Salt and pepper
  • ¼cup not-too-salty miso, preferably white
  • ¼cup unsalted butter
  • 1teaspoon sherry vinegar
  • 2poached (or warm-bath-cooked) eggs

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Nutritional analysis per serving (2 servings)

613 calories; 55 grams fat; 26 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 20 grams monounsaturated fat; 6 grams polyunsaturated fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 15 grams protein; 1389 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Asparagus With Miso Butter Recipe (2)

Preparation

  1. Step

    1

    Put oil or fat in skillet and turn heat to medium-high. Add as much asparagus as will fit in a layer, add salt and pepper to taste, and toss and stir until browned and shriveled, about 10 minutes.

  2. Meanwhile, over low heat in a small saucepan, warm and whisk together miso and butter, so they combine, and butter softens but does not melt. Whisk in vinegar and keep warm. Warm a serving plate.

  3. Step

    3

    When asparagus is done, put some miso butter on bottom of serving plate. Blot excess fat from asparagus if you like, put on top of the miso butter, and top with poached eggs. Serve immediately.

Ratings

5

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532

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Barbara

How do you warm butter without melting it? Can't I just whisk softened butter with the miso and use at room temp?

Susie

I'm roasting the asparagus in my toaster oven instead. Still turns out great. Miso butter now has a permanent place in my fridge. Also amazing slathered on corn on the cob. I add it to pasta as well.....so many uses...

Catherine

I have been making a rice bowl with this miso butter and a David Chang soft boiled egg for breakfast. Delicious!
I will definitely include asparagus as soon as my local farmers have it available in NY.

Schlattastic

This was deliciously lovely. Agree that the full amount of sauce may not be required, but it's so good you can save any extra for another use. On the 2nd try, I skipped the egg, and served this with some Kasu Black Cod with great success.

Ari

There's a difference between the cloudy melted (super super soft) and the clear melted. I whisked the cloudy melted butter with the miso on a low heat, and it worked perfectly.

Shay

I added some sh*take mushrooms to the asparagus, tasted good.

Nancy R.

This was delicious! I have made it twice - for dinner and then for company breakfast. To answer Barbara's question about warming butter without melting it, I have 3 suggestions: 1. Try warming the miso and then adding the butter that has been thinly sliced, Or 2. Warm slowly. Or 3. If the butter melts, put it to the side and stir occasionally. As it cools it will be incorporated.

Yampucci

Probably the sexiest dish I have ever made. A date you want to impress? A spouse you want to rekindle? Make this.

Nicole P.

Instead of warming the butter on the stove I microwaved it for 10 seconds they same way I do to soften butter when making cookies. Mixed the softened butter with miso straight out of the fridge. It was super easy to combine and did indeed look like frosting! Steamed the asparagus to avoid the additional oil. It was great!

Ariane

Plan to eat miso butter on all food from now on. Roasted asparagus with a mist of olive oil, salt, and pepper instead of pan frying. Halved sauce recipe (though I’m wishing I had leftovers) and added smoked salmon - fabulous.

Catherine

With asparagus now appearing at my local farms, finally got to make the actual recipe. I steamed the asparagus instead of cooking in fat. Came out great!

Cie

Gently heat miso in microwave. To the warmed miso add butter in slices and whisk to incorporate. Careful with microwave because miso burns very easily.
I cooked my asparagus in olive oil. Fried an egg in same pan. So delicious. This would be good over a bowl of rice for a perfectly balanced meal.

C, SF

This was phenomenal. The directions for making the miso butter were strange. Not sure how to soften butter in a saucepan without melting it. So I melted it and then gave my partner the job of whisking it like crazy until it finally combined. Next time I would soften the butter on the counter by letting it come to room temp before mixing with the miso. Other than that, this recipe is pure perfection.

Jane El

Butter consistency crucial. I thought I could whisk miso into melted butter. No go. Start again, soft but not melted did the trick...and it was a trick to warm the butter just so. Tasty tho.

Victoria

I ended up heating up the miso for a bit in a separate bowl over a small pot of water. The heat allowed it to soften, then I added slices of butter to whisk. This made it super easy to mix without melting the butter!

Nercon5

This is so superb. See Proust on asparagus if you’d like to climax a second time after eating this

NewMainer

YUM! For one service, I used a half dozen medium spears, 1 T each unsalted butter and light miso, and about a half t sherry vinegar (a must). I put the butter and miso on my plate which I put into a warm oven, so it all softened up together. Then I added vinegar. I cooked the asparagus and plated them over the butter/miso. I couldn't be bothered to poach the eggs, just fried them over easy and slid them over the asparagus. Holy cow so good!

jdt

For one serving I used 190g asparagus and 1T each salted butter and miso, forgot the vinegar. Microwaved the butter and miso for 10 seconds instead of on the stove. Man, this was amazing! I didn't add salt to the asparagus due to the salted butter but needed a little at the end. Cooked the asparagus on the stove as directed and took it as far as the picture (not 'brown and shrivelled'). Make sure you don't overcook your egg like I did! I will pay better attention when I make this again tomorrow.

Toby

Always a crowd pleaser, but wayyyy too much sauce. The problem is there’s too much miso for the amount of butter and amount of asparagus and it’s just a salty miso bomb that overpowers everything else. So use less miso or more asparagus.

jdt

Having scaled this down (a random sort of amount) I agree that if made as directed it would be too much sauce, and I love all sauces!

NY Housewife

Really good. Watched the mark bittman video on how to poach an egg, and the 10 seconds in the water with the shell on before cracking and putting it back in the water really did the trick and made poached eggs easy! The miso butter was great, I just put it in a small butter pan between my boiling water egg pan and my skillet with asparagus, and the residual heat from those allowed it to soften without melting, and chopping the butter up first I’m sure helped too. Very easy.

Rachel

Use less miso. Use warm saucepan but not over fire. Too salty.

H Leben

So delicious!!!! I like a squeeze of lime on top. I just mixed the miso and softened butter at room temp.

Juls

A unique flavor & oh so tasty. I zapped the miso butter combo in the microwave for a few seconds just enough to soften & consistency worked perfectly. Agree with others that this combo with dash of Sherry vinegar goes into my permanent file for multiple uses.

Hannah

I just beat softened butter with the miso (not using the stove) and left it at room-temp and it worked fine. I used lemon in place of sherry vinegar, but beside that, made it as is. I would make a half-portion of the miso butter next time as we had a lot left over, and would use at least half as much oil to cook the asparagus. I thought the overall dish was fine. I appreciated how easy and quick it was, but I didn't love it.

mike in ca

Low salt miso, used the full cup. Nearly inedible because of saltiness. More than once I’ve been led astray by miso recipes here, maybe there’s some other kind of miso than the stuff at supermarkets?

Amelia

Full cup? Recipe calls for 1/4 cup

Nancy

Sorry, but this was one of the most disappointing recipes I have cooked all year. I missed the point entirely with the bacon fat (why?)...I should have used EVOO...and the misobutter I made perfectly but it was sooo salty as to make the asparagus inedible. A pity.

Jon

I couldn't get the miso and butter to blend, it came out congealed.

Beth

The miso butter I made had a chalky texture. Is that the way it's supposed to turn out? I was anticipating something smoother. Tips?

Roberto

Definitely use unsalted butter! Definitely find a lower sodium white miso. Miso Master is not low sodium. It is delicious.I changed the ratio of butter to miso from 1:1 from the recipe to 2:1 with success.Don’t use any external heat source to combine. Just leave the miso and the butter at room temperature for a few hours then cream them together as you would butter and sugar for a cookie dough. Easy enough with a silicone spatula and a larger size bowl.

Ellen S

Followed the recipe as written. Utterly divine. Thank you NYT for so many wonderful new to me ways to cook so many different things. Next time I will use half as much delicious miso butter and save the rest for another time.

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Asparagus With Miso Butter Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you cook asparagus so it isn't tough? ›

Set a pan of salted water to a boil, add the asparagus and cook, covered, until the spears are tender. How long this will take depends on their thickness. Medium-thin to medium spears will take about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 minutes, jumbos a bit longer.

What are two appropriate methods of cooking asparagus? ›

Steamed, Simmered or Blanched
  • Steamed. It's easy to cook asparagus in a steamer. ...
  • Simmered. Simmering asparagus is another easy way to cook asparagus quickly, and a good option if you don't own a steamer. ...
  • Blanched. Some recipes, such as spring pasta dishes, call for blanching asparagus.

Why is my asparagus tough after cooking? ›

Lignin is not softened by heat, so it remains fibrous and tough after cooking. To eliminate lignin, snap (don't cut) the end of each spear just before cooking. It will break right at the point where the stalk becomes tender. Do this just before cooking so you leave no time for asparagus to accumulate yet more lignin.

Should you soak asparagus before cooking? ›

How Do You Prepare Asparagus? Soak your asparagus well. To remove the dirt that can get trapped in asparagus tips, fill a bowl with cold water, soak the asparagus for a few minutes, then rinse it off. Snap off the woody ends.

What spice or herb goes well with asparagus? ›

Asparagus can be steamed, roasted, grilled, broiled, boiled, blanched, dried or pickled. Combines well with: garlic, lemon juice, nutmeg, honey. Fine herbs: rosemary, basil, dill, marjoram, Mediterranean oregano, thyme, cilantro, etc.

What is the healthiest way to eat asparagus? ›

Try adding shredded, raw asparagus to pasta dishes and salads. Alternatively, enjoy the spears lightly steamed or sautéed in a frittata, or as a stand-alone side dish. Asparagus is a nutritious choice, regardless of whether it's cooked or raw. Try eating a combination of the two for maximum health benefits.

What tastes better thin or thick asparagus? ›

Ferretti says there is little taste difference between thin and thick asparagus spears, but the thinner vegetables can be tougher to chew.

What to eat with asparagus? ›

Asparagus is excellent served with any type of dairy product, such as cheese (particularly Grana Padano or Parmigiano), butter and any sauces containing dairy produce or cream. - Asparagus and eggs. A great classic? Green asparagus, eggs and truffle.

How to tell if asparagus is good? ›

Avoid stalks that appear limp or wilted. The tips of asparagus should be closed and compact, free from spreading or softness. Color: Asparagus should be should be rich in green color, softly fading to white at the bottom of the stalk. Avoid those dull in color, as this indicates the asparagus is passed freshness.

What is the trick to asparagus? ›

If you're working with thick stalks, peel the ends first with a vegetable peeler to make them easier to snap. Next, place one hand on the end of the stalk and one on the middle and snap the asparagus — it will miraculously break where the tough part of the stem meets the tender part of the stem.

Why shouldn't you snap ends off asparagus? ›

The truth is that the bend-and-snap method can actually waste delicious asparagus. Where a stalk breaks depends on the overall thickness of the stalk (skinny stalks are more flexible), how you bend it, and even how fresh the asparagus is (super-fresh asparagus tends to be more rigid).

How do you make asparagus firm again? ›

One simple method is to cut about 1/4 inch from the bottom of each asparagus spear and then place them in a glass of ice water. Cover the glass with a plastic bag and refrigerate for a couple of hours. The cold water will help to rehydrate it and restore its crispness.

How do you keep asparagus from getting chewy? ›

butter on top of your asparagus. and place it into a preheated oven at 375 degrees. for 15 to 18 minutes. And when it's done, you're left for the asparagus that not only looks good, but actually taste good.

How do you make asparagus less woody? ›

Once dry, arrange the asparagus stalks so that the woody ends align. Then, use a large chef's knife to trim 1 to 2 inches off the ends of the stalks. Fatter spears may require more trimming than tender, thin spears. Discard the woody asparagus ends, or save them for stock.

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