Beef And Asparagus Roll-Ups: In the kitchen with Kelley

In the kitchen with Kelley: Beef and asparagus roll-ups

My local farmer’s market just started setting up this week…

And I couldn’t be more excited. From spring through fall, I feed my family as many fresh locally-grown fruits and vegetables as possible. Even though I didn’t see any asparagus at the market today, I’m already looking forward to one of my favorite dinnertime staples: beef and asparagus roll ups.

If I had to pick a favorite vegetable, it would be asparagus. I really like the taste and the crispness when it’s cooked just right. The fact that it’s loaded with nutrients is a nice bonus. Asparagus is a good source of folate and vitamins A, C, E and K.

But there are a few other equally great reasons to eat more asparagus…

When you eat asparagus you also get glutathione, a key nutrient. It’s been called the “mother of all antioxidants,” the “master antioxidant” and the “ultimate antioxidant.” And not one of these nicknames is an exaggeration. If you think you may not get enough glutathione, see if you have any of these signs of a deficiency and discover 12 ways to boost it–in addition to eating asparagus.

Asparagus can also make you feel fuller and eat less because it’s a good source of inulin fiber. Inulin fiber is fermentable by the flora in your gut and the fermentation is what produces acetate, a natural appetite suppressant.

Last, but not least, asparagus is a prebiotic food, and you need plenty of these to keep your gut microbiome in tip top shape. So you see, there really is no good reason not to eat asparagus regularly.

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Beef and asparagus roll-ups

Author: Kelley Martin

Ingredients

12 stalks asparagus
12 thin slices roast beef
2-3 tablespoons horseradish, to taste
1 cup whipped cream cheese*

Instructions

Wash the asparagus and shake off the excess water. If you very gently bend the asparagus until it snaps, the toughest part of the stalk will snap off. Alternatively, you can just cut off the bottoms of the stalk about an inch up.
Lay the asparagus flat in a skillet with just enough water to cover the stalks. Bring to a boil and cook just 2-3 minutes, until the color becomes very bright.
Transfer the asparagus to a bowl of ice water to cool them and stop them from cooking any further. Then dry the stalks on paper towels.
In a bowl, add horseradish to cream cheese a little at a time, mixing and tasting until it's as spicy as you want it to be.
Working with one slice of roast beef at a time, smear spread on beef, place an asparagus stalk on the edge of the beef and roll up. Repeat until all 12 roll-ups are prepared.

*If you don’t want to eat cream cheese, you can dab horseradish directly on the meat or just skip the cream cheese and horseradish altogether.