Air Fryer Asparagus

Air Fryer Asparagus is a quick and simple side dish. Air frying brings out the sweetness in asparagus, and it is ready in 10 minutes, perfect for a weeknight vegetable.

Jump to:

• Ingredient Notes and Variations
• Air Fryer Asparagus
• Trimming or snapping asparagus
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

I love roasted vegetables, but I only make them when I'm already roasting the main course. Why? It seems wasteful to turn on the oven just to roast a vegetable side dish. That's one of the big advantages I've found with an air fryer - it's just a small convection oven. It heats up quickly, doesn't use much energy, and is perfect for a quick roasted vegetable side.

Ingredient Notes and Variations

Asparagus bunch sizes: A bunch of asparagus at my grocery store is about 12 ounces, sometimes as much as a pound.

Asparagus spear sizes: The cooking time depends on how thick the spears are. My "medium" asparagus size is about the width of a pencil, and takes 10 minutes at 400°F. (This is usually what I get at my grocery store - but not always.) If it's noticeably smaller than that, I call it "small" asparagus, and cook it for 8 minutes at 400°F. If it's noticeably larger, about the width of a Sharpie marker, I call it large asparagus and cook it for 12 minutes. To check if the asparagus is cooked, take one out of the air fryer and bite into the stem end - the center should be cooked all the way through. (I really only check large asparagus for doneness after 12 minutes - I've seen some jumbo spears when they're in season at my local farmers market, and they've taken even longer to cook.)

Fancy Variations:

• French style: Mix up a quick vinaigrette and drizzle it over the asparagus after cooking.
• Italian style: After cooking, squeeze the juice of ½ a lemon over the asparagus, then sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese. (Bonus points if you shred it at the table, to show off for your diners).
• Greek style: After cooking, squeeze the juice of ½ a lemon over the asparagus, then sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese. (If I'm feeling fancy I'll use Mediterranean Herb feta crumbles for a little extra flavor).
• Szechuan style: Replace the olive oil with vegetable oil, and use Szechuan pepper-salt instead of the all-purpose seasoning blend, and sprinkle with some red pepper flakes too. After cooking, drizzle with 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and ½ teaspoon of toasted sesame oil.
• Prosciutto wrapped asparagus: If you have thick asparagus, this is a really fancy way to serve it. (I love to serve this as an appetizer - single spears wrapped with prosciutto make a great finger food). Skip the oil and seasoning blend - the prosciutto fat will render and replace the oil. Buy 1 thin slice of prosciutto for every 2 asparagus spears. Split each piece of prosciutto in half lengthwise. Wrap each asparagus spear with a half-piece of prosciutto, starting at the bottom of the spear and spiraling up to the top, leaving the asparagus tip uncovered. (When wrapping, think of a candy cane or a barber's pole.) Gently lay the wrapped asparagus spears in the air fryer basket in a single layer. Air fry for 8 minutes, or until the prosciutto is browned and a little crispy.
  

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Trimming or snapping asparagus

Asparagus is tough and woody at the root end, and it needs to be trimmed. The traditional way to do this is to snap off the tough end of each asparagus spear, by grabbing the spear in the middle and at the root end and bending until it snaps. The spear will naturally break at the end of the tough part, leaving you with the good part of the spear. Snapping a whole bunch of asparagus takes too long for a weeknight, so I take a shortcut. I pull one spear out of the bunch, and snap it to use it as a guide. Then I slice the rest of the root ends off of the bunch where that one spear snapped. (This works best when I leave the rubber band holding the bunch together near the tips - it holds them all in place while I slice.) See the step-by-step picture below for trimming asparagus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scaling

One bunch of asparagus from my grocery store is about 12 ounces. I can go up to a pound before I'm overfilling my 6-quart air fryer basket - I want the asparagus in a 1- to 2-spear deep layer when I put it in the basket; it will shrink down to about a single layer as it cooks. Any deeper than that and the asparagus will take longer to cook, because the extra spears block the middle layers from the convection heating of the air fryer. If you need to double the recipe in a 6-quart air fryer, add an extra five minutes to the cooking time, then check the asparagus and keep cooking if the spears are not all cooked through. (Or use a toaster-oven sized air fryer, which has more cooking area in its rack. Or use a convection oven - see "no air fryer" below.

No Air Fryer? No Problem

If you have a convection oven, it is basically a jumbo air fryer. Preheat it to 400°F, put the asparagus on a rack over a rimmed baking sheet, and follow the instructions. If you don't have a convection oven, a regular oven preheated to 400°F will work, but increase the cooking time to 15 minutes for thin asparagus, 20 minutes for medium asparagus, and 25 minutes for thick asparagus.

If you want to make the asparagus on the stovetop, use my Steam-Sautéed Asparagus for another easy recipe.

I ate Asparagus, and now my pee smells funny...

I know, a little gross for a food blog, but I can't help myself. It's chemistry! Asparagus contains asparagusic acid, a sulfur-containing compound unique to asparagus. It breaks down when you digest the asparagus, and that's why you get that strange odor the next time you go to the bathroom. Don't worry! It's just the asparagus. (Source: Why Asparagus Makes Your Urine Smell | University of Utah Health)

Can I use frozen asparagus?

I don't recommend it. This recipe works best with fresh asparagus.

Do I really need to preheat the air fryer?

Yes. Preheating the air fryer gets the basket hot, because we want the asparagus to immediately start to roast when it goes in the basket.

Related Posts

For some other air fryer recipes, try my Air Fryer Frozen French Fries, Air Fryer Breaded Chicken Thighs and Potatoes, or Quick Air Fryer Tilapia (with Spice Rub).

If you're looking for other Asparagus options, try Grilled Asparagus with Whole Grain Mustard Vinaigrette or Shaved Asparagus and Parmesan Salad. Or if you want to get fancy, try my Sous Vide Asparagus or Instant Pot Asparagus Risotto.

If you're looking for something else, here is my index of Air Fryer Recipes, and my All Recipes Index.

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