And the Asparafest Winner is….

A couple of weeks ago I ran a wee competition with the folks behind Asparafest, a family-friendly asparagus, music and food festival in Evesham, Worcestershire, the very heart of the UK asparagus growing country. We asked for your asparagus recipes and you gave us plenty to be drooling over! Thanks so much to everyone for taking part and I’m delighted that several have been chosen to be featured in the festival programme, subject to your approval of course. The winning recipe wins weekend tickets to the festival including camping and lots of lovely asparagus.

And if you’re not lucky enough to win tickets why not bob along to the festival anyway. It’s on Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June at Ashdown Farm in Evesham and includes two music stages, family crafts and workshops, CBeebies Mr Bloom, Gastronaut Stefan Gates, falconry, aerial theatre, a cookery kitchen with Felice Tocchini, vintage vehicles and a fun fair. There’ll also be craft and food stalls, plenty of real ale and cider, various talks and asparagus cookery demonstrations and tasting sessions! It certainly sounds like lots of fun to me, I’m actually hoping to go along myself with the monsters for at least part of the weekend.

Here’s a wee round-up of all the submissions:

Kate from The Gluten Free Alchemist blog linked up a glorious trio of her Asparagus recipes, a Tuna & Asparagus Pasta, a Stilton & Asparagus Quiche recipe and some Asparagus & Stilton Scones. All gluten-free!

Bintu from the Recipes from a Pantry blog tempted us with a Roasted Asparagus Salad with Grapes and an Asparagus Frittata with Feta and Thyme.

Karen from Lavender and Lovage linked up a couple of recipes too, firstly her Hot Smoked Salmon & Asparagus Terrine followed by a Two Cheese & Asparagus Tart.

I added three of my own Eat Your Veg recipes, the first of which a Chicken, Asparagus & New Potato Traybake, then an Asparagus & Gruyère Tart and finally my recent Gnocchi with Asparagus, Sage, Lemon & Prosciutto.

Helen from Family Food Friends gave us Asparagus & Oyster Mushrooms with Lemon-Pinenut-Pesto Spaghetti

Last of the bloggie entries Janie from Hedgecombers gave us Asparagus, Oyster Mushoom and Pearl Barley Salad.

And we had a couple of non-blog entries. The first of which an Asparagus & Lemon Risotto with Pearl Barley from Kim McDonough. Katie from The Evesham Hotel served up a lazy brunch dish of Smoked Salmon, Scrambled Eggs & Char-Grilled Asparagus on Toasted Sour Dough.

My oh my we were delighted to see such a range of entries! After much tough deliberation Tash, the festival organiser, choose the Roast Asparagus, Oyster Mushroom & Pearl Barley Salad as the winning recipe. So big congrats to Janie from Hedgecombers for your clever and inspiring use of asparagus, well done you! I know you’d said you wouldn’t be able to make it for the weekend but tickets are fully transferable to anyone else you might like to choose to come along, just get them to bring back the asparagus! If you haven’t checked out Janie’s beautiful Cornish ‘Field to Fork’ Hedgecombers blog then I urge you to, she recently won the 2014 South West Food Reader Award no less!.

Obviously with your permissions, the festival would like to print the following recipes in their festival programme and get local chefs to try them out!:

Thanks again for all your wonderful entries, I can’t wait to try a few out myself!

Louisa