Air Fryer Asparagus

Air fryer asparagus is an easy side dish that can be made in less than 10 minutes. No need to heat up the entire oven to get perfectly roasted asparagus, this recipe can be made start-to-finish before a typical oven even pre-heats! Jazz up your asparagus with some of our tasty variations found below.

Air Fried Asparagus Ingredients

For this easy air fryer asparagus recipe you just need 3 easy ingredients:

Asparagus – Find asparagus stalks with tight crowns (tips). The spear size doesn’t really matter as long as you have a nice, crisp, green asparagus that as a good “snap”.Olive oil – You can use regular olive oil or we love using garlic-infused olive oilSalt – Season to taste. Don’t use pepper when cooking because the pepper can burn while air-frying and give the asparagus a weird taste.

Switch It Up with More Fun Flavors

We love keeping our air fryer asparagus flavor profile simple most of the time, but sometimes it’s fun to switch it up with some different flavors and textures. Try some of these variations to jazz it up a little: Parmesan cheese – Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on your asparagus spears before and after air frying. Parmesan cheese + Panko bread crumbs – To make more of a breaded air fryer asparagus, combine Parmesan cheese and panko bread crumbs and sprinkle over the top or toss with the asparagus in a large bowl before placing in the air fryer. Garlic – Toss your asparagus with the olive oil and fresh, crushed garlic before cooking. Lemon – Squeeze a little fresh lemon juice over your asparagus after roasting to add a little zing Bacon – Wrap each spear in a thin slice of bacon. If you are doing this, cut out the olive oil. There will be enough fat from the bacon to cook up the asparagus and keep it tender.

Prepping the Asparagus

You will prep the asparagus for air frying just as you would if you were prepping it for oven roasting or sautéing. Rinse the asparagus spears and pat dry. Next, trim asparagus spears by snapping off the woody ends. You do this by gently bending the bottom end of the stalk until it simply snaps off. You can use a knife to cut the rest of the stalks in the same place as the first stalk you snapped, but I prefer just snapping all of them by hand.

Seasoning the Asparagus

You can make frying asparagus in the air fryer as simple or as complicated as you like. Most of the time we just snap off the ends, toss it in the air fryer basket, and season from there. However, if you want to coat the asparagus with more oil and seasoning (or with any of the flavor methods above), you can toss it in a large bowl before air frying to get an even coating. If you want less mess to clean up, you can also place the ingredients in a Ziplock bag and gently toss to coat before adding to the air fryer.

How To Air Fry Asparagus

Rinse and dry asparagus then snap off the ends.Place asparagus in a single layer in the air fryer basket.Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with saltAir fry at 375-degrees for 7-8 minutes depending on the size of your asparagus spears. Remove when the spears begin to char.

Dipping Sauces

We usually eat our asparagus plain, but sometimes if we are serving the asparagus as an appetizer we like to serve these tender spears with a dipping sauce. Try it with the lemon aioli with this artichoke or with the spicy aioli mayo in this sandwich. You can also serve with a balsamic vinegar reduction or melted butter and garlic.

Storing and Re-Heating Asparagus

If you happen to have leftovers, you can store your asparagus in an airtight container for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. Like most vegetables, asparagus doesn’t re-heat great in the microwave. The texture just doesn’t come out right. To keep the crisp texture and good flavor, you can place the asparagus back in the air fryer at 350-degrees for 1-2 minutes or sauté in a non-stick skillet with a little butter until JUST heated through. When reheating, don’t over cook or your asparagus will turn to mush.

Air Fryer Asparagus