roasted asparagus with soy sauce and garlic

I always thought I didn't like asparagus... until I tried roasted asparagus with soy sauce and garlic. This umami-rich flavor combo is exactly what your taste buds crave, and is the kind of dish that turns asparagus haters into asparagus lovers.

Even better? It is SO hands off to make, you'll find yourself loving it just because it takes you zero time at all to pull together.

Asparagus is one of my favorite summer vegetables. It's at its seasonal peak, low effort to prepare, and I can make it in my countertop toaster oven instead of in my big oven which means my kitchen doesn't end up swelteringly hot.

Try serving this as a side with a bowl of green spaghetti sauce to really lean into the low-effort green of it all in the summer when you really don't feel like cooking.

The umami flavors also make it a great side dish paired with a serving of richly flavored, pan-seared dal pierogi or my papermoon cheesesteaks on ciabatta bread.

Jump to:

• Why I Love This Asparagus
• Ingredient Notes
• Instructions
• Practical Tips & Recipe Notes
• Bonus Tip
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Why I Love This Asparagus

Roasted asparagus with soy sauce and garlic is one of those happy accident recipes that started with me making a mistake and ended with me discovering a whole new thing that I like.

In this case it was a small note in an issue of Alicia Kennedy's fantastic food newsletter where she mentioned briefly that she was enjoying "blistering string beans in the cast-iron with a little olive oil, then drizzling with soy sauce and dusting with garlic powder."

I read Alicia's email in the morning and, somehow, by the end of the day, when I placed my delivery order, I was sure she had said asparagus. I've been trying to branch out and give foods I always thought I didn't like a second chance, so... asparagus was on the brain, I guess?

Since I had the asparagus, I decided I might as well give it a try with the soy sauce and garlic anyway. So I blistered the asparagus in a cast iron pan over high heat, doused it with some aged soy sauce I picked up at an Asian grocery store, set off the smoke alarm (oops), and was shocked and delighted to learn I LIKE ASPARAGUS.

At such high heat the asparagus buds at the end get crispy and a little bit charred. The stems have a really satisfying bite to them without being stringy. And the soy sauce and garlic powder is like a little flavor bomb going off in your mouth.

Even more shocking? Jimmy loves this roasted asparagus with soy sauce and garlic too. He was way more skeptical than I was, and yet, over the next month, we found ourselves adding two, sometimes three, bundles of asparagus to our grocery cart.

There's a convenience factor here for sure — asparagus is way easier to fit in your basket than three crowns of broccoli. But if we didn't actually love roasted asparagus with soy sauce and garlic so much, no amount of convenience could convince us to keep buying it.

Ingredient Notes

Here's what you'll need to make this roasted asparagus with soy sauce and garlic! Everything should be pretty easy to find in your local grocery store. See recipe card for quantities.

• Asparagus - Thick or thin asparagus, whatever you prefer is fine. Thicker asparagus might need a longer cooking time, so just adjust as needed! Asparagus is in season from March through June, but you can usually find it into August and September pretty easily. Make sure to check the tops of the asparagus — you don't want any mushy ones!
• Olive Oil - Whatever your favorite type of olive oil is is fine here. You could even use a garlic infused olive oil to really bring those garlic flavors forward. Neutral oils will also work, but idk, I like the olive oil flavor.
• Soy Sauce - I use an aged soy sauce (also sometimes called "dark" soy sauce), but any type of soy sauce you like is fine. Aged soy sauces have been fermented longer and are usually thicker in consistency and less salty in flavor. I like the thicker consistency of the aged soy sauce for this recipe; thinner soy sauces don't cling as nicely to the asparagus.
• Garlic Powder and/or Garlic Cloves - You really only need the garlic powder for this recipe. But if you want to be a little extra, tossing one or two small garlic cloves onto the pan will soften them and mellow their flavor. You can smash them and toss them with the asparagus and soy sauce to add a little extra garlic flavor. But that's optional.
• Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which half as salty as other brands. If you're using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, cut the amount of salt in half.
• Pepper - Freshly cracked or pre-ground black pepper, either one is absolutely fine here.

Instructions

The first step of making any asparagus dish is to trim the asparagus. You can either snap the ends off or use a knife to remove the bottom 2-3 inches.

Basically try to get rid of the tough, woody bits at the bottom. They are no fun to eat.

If you really want to be sure there's no tough woody bits, you can take a vegetable peeler to the ends of the asparagus to shave them off. I think that's a bit extra, I don't want to spend time doing that, but you do you.

I've made so much roasted asparagus in the past month that I have my favorite preparation down to a science at this point. I don't bring the asparagus all the way to a blister anymore.

Instead I just give it a gentle but decisive roasting, like I'm an insult comic trying to turn over a new leaf but not quite there yet.

Instead of the high heat of a cast iron on the stove which reliably set off the smoke detector every time I made it, I recommend using a quarter sheet pan in the oven lined with aluminum foil or a silicone mat.

A drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a light sprinkle of garlic powder is really all the asparagus needs before heading into the oven.

If you're feeling ambitious, throw a few whole garlic cloves onto the pan with the asparagus and let them get all nice and soft in the oven — you can mash them up and toss the asparagus with them before serving. But honestly, that's an optional step.

Pop the asparagus in a 400-425F oven for about 10-15 minutes and that's basically it.

Once it comes out of the oven, finish with a very light drizzle of soy sauce and toss to coat the asparagus.

Soy sauce has a really strong flavor, so less is more, imo. Drizzle a bit, then taste. Add more if needed, or serve with a small bowl of additional soy sauce for optional dipping.

Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• If you're new to working with asparagus, it might take you a couple tries to figure out what your ideal asparagus stalk looks like. Sometimes you'll find really thick, chonky asparagus with woody stems and other times you'll find asparagus with very thin stems and dainty tops. I prefer the thinner asparagus, but it's really up to you.
• To trim asparagus, hold the bottom of a stalk in one hand and hold above the woody part of the stem with the other. Bend until the tough end (which you don't want to eat) snaps off. You might be surprised at just how much comes off! If you're making huge batches of asparagus, you may want to use a knife instead — just cut off the bottom 2-3 inches.
• Soy sauce can burn in the oven or in a skillet, so it's best to always drizzle it on last rather than cook the asparagus in it.
• If you prefer using a skillet you can follow all of the same instructions, just toss the asparagus into a skillet over high heat for about 10 minutes or until they're as cooked through as you want. Add the soy sauce to finish once you take it off the heat.
• I'm giving a range of cook temps — 400-425F — mostly because it really depends on how cooked through you want your asparagus to be. If you prefer it to be a little more green and fresh use the lower temp. For darker, softer asparagus, use the higher temp.
• I've also tried this with broccoli, broccolini, and yes, even string beans as Alicia initially recommended. It's great with all of them.

Bonus Tip

My friend Emily suggested I try roasting the asparagus with mayonnaise instead of olive oil, which I had never heard of before. So I tossed the asparagus with about 2 tablespoon kewpie mayo + seasonings before roasting.

While I still prefer EVOO just for simplicity, the mayo did really bring out the umami flavors and it helped the soy sauce cling to the asparagus once I tossed it all together. If you're a mayo fiend, this is something you might want to try!

📖 Recipe