If you’re a Caesar lover like us, you know that pickled asparagus is an absolute must to pair with this drink! So many people add some celery or lime as garnish and leave it at that. But not us… no, never us. We’re not ashamed of being extra, and we like to go all out when garnishing this classic Canadian drink. We’re talking pickles, olives, bacon, and most importantly – pickled asparagus. The taste of the pickled asparagus alongside the nice spice of a cold Caesar uplevels the taste of this drink by a million. We simply can’t live without it.
Asparagus has been around for many years, with a long and rich history. It originated in the Mediterranean, and other areas like Africa and Egypt, over 2000 years ago. In ancient Greece, it was actually used to treat different medical conditions. It was a staple dish for many European royals, starting in the 16th century, including France’s Louis XIV in the 17th century. Nowadays, it’s a popular food (royal or not), all around the world.
We love asparagus. Whether we’re pairing fresh asparagus with a nice piece of salmon for dinner, or popping in some pickled asparagus into our Caesars for a sneaky, refreshing drink, this is one vegetable that’s always on our ‘to-buy’ list.
This is a bit of a different snack than the candy we usually test. But we adore a good Caesar just as much as we love candy, and you can’t have a Caesar without pickled asparagus. So, we thought we’d try freeze-drying our pickled asparagus to see if we could come up with an even tastier snack to use as garnish. If you want to know how it went, keep reading to get all the facts.
This experiment was interesting! When we’ve tried freeze-drying our favourite snacks in the past, many of them end up puffing up. But not this pickled asparagus. These didn’t puff up at all and instead, became super airy and light. They were nice and salty, too, which is a big plus for us!
So what did we like more – the normal or the freeze-dried version? Personally, we like the original form. The normal pickled asparagus is tried and true. But, the freeze-dried version is definitely a future idea to play around with. We’ll try it again and experiment with how they would rehydrate back into a Caesar. Overall, we give the freeze-dried version 3 stars!
Freeze-dried or not, pickled asparagus is an absolute must whenever you go to garnish a Caesar. If you agree, well, welcome to the family, and cheers to the garnish queens!