Simple roasted asparagus gets gussied up with a lush yet easy 3-ingredient blender hollandaise sauce.
Hollandaise Gives Roasted Asparagus Fancy Restaurant Vibes
The quickest and easiest way to make asparagus the most delicious thing ever is to rev up its inherent sweetness with a fast and furious roast in a hot oven or on the grill.
But if you’re looking to make your green stalked side dish even better, drizzling this lemony lush, 3-minute blender hollandaise over the sweetly caramelized roasted asparagus is a wildly popular way to munch on this stand-out, stand-up vegetable.
Fast, simple, and delectable, this is one asparagus side dish you’ll want to make all season long.
Enjoy!
The Main Ingredients
The full recipe, with amounts, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Asparagus — Thick or thin spars are equally delicious. Know that thicker asparagus will take a little longer to cook.
- Olive oil — Extra virgin is my preference.
- Egg yolks — Creates a super creamy hollandaise. Save the whites for tomorrow’s scramble.
- Lemon juice — Freshly squeezed is best, but I won’t tell if you break out the bottled stuff.
- Hot water — It’s got to be hot enough to nuke the bacteria in the eggs.
- Butter — You’ll need 8 ounces (i.e. 1 cup or 2 sticks). Choose unsalted if you prefer to control the amount of salt.
How to Make Asparagus with Hollandaise
This is my more detailed roasted asparagus recipe with lots of cooking tips, but I’ve outlined the basics below.
Roast the Asparagus
- Prep the asparagus. Rinse the asparagus in cool water then gently press with a kitchen towel to remove any moisture so the oil sticks to the stalks and the asparagus roasts instead of steams. Then, remove the woody ends.
- Use high heat. Preheat your oven at 450°F. High heat caramelizes the sugars in the asparagus for a super delicious spear. Adjust your roasting time depending on the thickness of your spears.
- Toss on your baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil directly on your asparagus and season with the salt and pepper, then toss with your hands before roasting. Why dirty an extra bowl?
- Roast for 8-10 minutes, depending on thickness. Roasted asparagus should still have snap. Avoid overcooking the asparagus or it will become stringy and mushy.
Make the Hollandaise Sauce
- Clarify the butter. Add the butter to a glass measuring cup, then microwave it in 15-30 second blasts. The chalky white solids will drop to the bottom of the cup. Once you drizzle the liquid gold into the blender, discard the white fat left behind.
- SLOWLY blend the hot water into the eggs. You want to give the eggs a head start to cook, but you do NOT want to scramble them.
- Drizzle in the warm butter. Keep the blender running on low as you stream the melted butter into the sauce. Cover the top hole of the blender with a clean kitchen towel, or else you’ll wind up with hollandaise sauce all over your kitchen.
Heidi’s Tip: This recipe makes more than enough hollandaise for one pound of asparagus, so feel free to double or triple the amount of asparagus to fit your needs. Or, use the extra hollandaise for eggs benedict the next day.
Heidi’s Tips for Recipe Success
Look for the freshest stalks you can find. Whether thick or thin, choose bright green stalks that are firm and fresh. While asparagus is more readily available in spring, you can typically find good quality year round.
Trim your asparagus. I used to bend each individual stalk of asparagus until it snapped to discard the woody stem, about one inch up from the bottom of the stalk. These days I just line them up and chop off the ends with a sharp knife.
Don’t bother with peeling asparagus spears. But if you want, get a more tender asparagus stalk by using a vegetable peeler to trim the outer layer of the spear.
Add a pinch of salt to brighten the flavors of the hollandaise. Taste as you go. This isn’t an essential addition but does add just a bit of balance.
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below, leave a comment to tell us what you think, and tag me on Instagram @foodiecrush.
Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
Ingredients
For the Roasted Asparagus
- 1 pound fresh asparagus , trimmed
- 1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
For the Hollandaise Sauce
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ cup hot water
- 1 cup unsalted butter , (½ pound)
- Pinch of kosher salt
- paprika
Instructions
- Roast the asparagus. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place the asparagus on a baking sheet in a single layer. Drizzle with the olive oil, coating spears evenly, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 8-10 minutes (depending on thickness of spears) until tender.1 pound fresh asparagus, 1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon pepper
- Melt the butter. You can do this in a small pan on the stove over low heat or in a microwave-safe bowl or measuring cup on high heat in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. Set aside.1 cup unsalted butter
- Make the hollandaise. Add the yolks and lemon juice to the blender container. Blend on high for 15 seconds then scrape down the sides. Turn on the blender and slowly add the hot water until incorporated. Drape a kitchen towel over hole in the blender lid to avoid splattering, set the blender to high, and slowly drizzle the hot butter into the egg yolk. Blend for about 30-60 seconds or until thickened. Taste for seasoning and add more lemon juice or salt to taste.Tip: If your homemade hollandaise sauce looks like it might break, add 1-2 teaspoons of cold water and blend more.3 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ¼ cup hot water, Pinch of kosher salt
- Serve. Plate the roasted asparagus on a platter or individual plates and drizzle with hollandaise. Sprinkle with paprika if desired. This dish is best served warm.paprika
Notes
Nutrition
What to Serve With This
More Asparagus Side Dishes
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Nancy
Heidi. I really enjoy your work and have used many of your recipes but I must take exception on the above recipe. I have been making blender Hollandaise sauce for over 30 years. I disagree with your recipe, the whole idea of Hollandaise is to make a lovely rich sauce with a beautiful velvet sheen not a watered down version look alike. If the sauce needs to be thinned, which it shouldn’t if you’re using only 3 large egg yolks and a cup of butter, a tablespoon should be more than enough but after all the melted butter has been incorporated .
Thanks for the tip Nancy! This is simply another way to make hollandaise an easy way :)