While I love to experiment with new recipes, sometimes I just want to eat simply. Few ingredients, few tools… just the basics. This sometimes is the best way to highlight a certain food; in this case, asparagus!

I simply made a white wine sauce of sorts to cook the rice in, steamed and sautéed peas with asparagus, and topped with thinly sliced asparagus flash cooked to make it fancy! It’s simple and easily modified to match your tastes! Instead of rice you can easily use pasta, just cook the pasta as directed and toss in the white wine sauce with the veggies! Pasta is a quicker option, but I wanted the nutrients from the wild rice blend.

Start with garlic and a shallot (easily subbed for an onion if you have that on hand) and sauté in butter and oil. If you are lacto-free skip the butter and use a little more oil. The butter helps to bind the rice in the sauce, but it is still very good without it. Cook the garlic and shallots until translucent. When they begin to stick to the pan, add a little white wine (I usually pour it right from my glass!) and let most of the liquid cook out. Now add the rice, red pepper flakes, and whatever dried herbs you’d like to use! This time I stuck with salt and pepper. Simple. I stir the rice allowing it to absorb the flavors of the wine, garlic and shallot— about 3 minutes. Remember Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat? Same concept. When the rice starts to pop, add chicken broth. If you don’t have chicken broth, use water and add more salt. Easy peasy!

On high, bring the liquid to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Cook according to the package and how much rice you used. Usually around 45 minutes. Here is where this recipe stumps me sometimes. Rice is a waiting game. Releasing the steam does not help the process! I am extremely impatient so I am mainly talking to myself here. Put on a timer and forget about the rice. Focus on the asparagus to distract yourself from inevitably removing the lid and checking if the rice is done before the timer goes off.

Nothing is worse than enjoying a wonderfully cooked stalk of asparagus, and then biting down on the end only to not be able to chew that last perfect bite. Mary Parker recently taught me a good way to avoid this. You simply pick on stalk and bend it toward the base until it breaks. Where is breaks is about where the good asparagus ends and the inedible stem begins. Then use this stalk as your guide for the rest, breaking them in the same place so that most of your asparagus will be the same length. Now cut your asparagus into bite sized pieces.

When your rice is about 10 minutes away from being ready heat up a half a cup of water in a separate pan. Throw in your asparagus and frozen or fresh peas. allow to steam in the pan for 5 minutes. Drain excess water and add a tablespoon of olive oil, along with a dash of salt and pepper. About another 5 minutes. Once the rice is finished, stir in butter (again, if you are lacto- free, skip this step) chopped parsley, lemon zest, and veggies.

For garnish, I simply used a vegetable peeler and peel strips of asparagus, then flash cook them in olive oil, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes for about 1 minute. I top the rice with my peeled asparagus and parmesan. The fresh lemon juice  and salty cheese really add depth to this simple dish, plus it looks pretty!