Asparagus season started earlier in Austria and Germany this year than ever. We have been enjoying this lovely and noble vegetable since the beginning of April. People only eat asparagus with sauce, Hollandaise, or melted butter, but this wonderful vegetable can do so much more!

I love making a quiche with asparagus or just baking asparagus in the oven with butter, salt, and a little bit of lemon balm or lemon thyme. I will be posting more asparagus recipes as the season goes on.

I love using herbs in my cooking. My herb garden is starting to be so shaped that I can quickly go and cut what I need. Planting basil, I still need to wait a little. In Austria, there are still possibilities for night frosts until the middle of May, and basil—well, basil doesn’t take any frost. The times I lost all the basil that I had planted.

Four herbs are especially useful for bringing out the taste of fresh asparagus, whether you serve spears as a standalone side dish mixed with butter or add asparagus to recipes.

Chives
Snip fresh chives onto your sautéed asparagus spears just before serving. Chives appear in the garden at about the same time as asparagus, so gardeners may have fresh chives available. The slight bite from the chives goes well with butter flavored with lemon. You can also add chopped chives to any recipe calling for asparagus.
Lemon Balm
The fresh taste of lemon is fantastic when combined with asparagus. Why not use lemon balm for that same bright flavor? Snipping a few leaves into a bowl of steaming hot asparagus spears releases the flavor in a way few other seasonings can match.
Lemon balm is an excellent addition to any asparagus recipe containing eggs. Its naturally sunny flavor complements both foods and seems to marry them happily together. Be sure to mince the lemon balm before using it in egg recipes—larger pieces of lemon balm can look unnatural when mixed in with the light-colored egg ingredient.
Dill
Dill is familiar to anyone who has made or enjoyed asparagus pickles, but adding some dill to the butter before tossing it with freshly cooked asparagus spears is also a great way to combine the two flavors. Dill is a beautiful herb to use in asparagus dishes, as it doesn’t overpower the fresh taste while keeping it from tasting too bland.
Tarragon
Gardeners who grow tarragon sometimes wonder what to do with it once it is harvested, but here’s the answer: use it to add zip and depth to asparagus dishes. Since both asparagus and tarragon go well with eggs, these three ingredients make a great team in recipes for light brunch meals.  

This is a fusion recipe of Finnish and Austrian cooking. I combined a traditional Finnish salmon casserole recipe with Austrian asparagus and ham. Of course, I made some adjustments, but you can use the ham instead of the salmon. If you end up switching to ham, replace the dill with chives.

I am using asparagus tips in my cooking because they are cheap, and you do not need to peel them. If you like green asparagus, use that. I have understood that white asparagus is not available everywhere. Here in Austria, white asparagus is the thing. Same thing across the border in Germany.

Here’s the salmon and asparagus casserole recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 kg white asparagus
• 1 leek finely chopped
• 1tsp dried dill or buch or fresh dill
• 600 g starchy potatoes
• 500g salmon
• 250 ml cream
• 200 g cream cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• 100 g grated parmesan cheese

Preparation:

1. Wash the asparagus, peel it, and trim off the woody ends. Peel and dice the potatoes. Let the asparagus and potatoes simmer in a pot of boiling, salted water for 6 minutes. Cut the salmon into pieces.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) with both top and bottom heat.
3. Mix the cooking cream, dill, and cream cheese, seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. Place the potatoes, asparagus spears, cut leek, and salmon in a baking dish and mix. Pour the cream cheese mixture over them. Cover everything with grated parmesan cheese.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes minutes or until the potatoes are done.

Tip: Use starchy potatoes because they cook faster in casserole.