I cannot even begin to tell you how much such a common , taken-for-granted, fruit as this, surprisingly added such a tremendous and unexpected splash of flavor to hum-drum ol’ asparagus!

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE asparagus! Especially grilled, roasted or steamed, and “undercooked” to keep a bit of a ~crunch!~ So long as it isn’t overcooked and mushy, I can eat it about any way you can dream up. 

So in case you haven’t read my two previous posts, I’ll quickly fill you in! My hubby, bless his heart, does all of the grocery shopping for us. I am a lucky, lucky woman!

Besides, my philosophy is, that women are gatherers and men are hunters. So I gather what I need at home, and send the hubs to the store to hunt for the rest! 😉 Ha!! Whatever works, right? 😀 😉

Anyways, my fearless brave hunter returned from Walmart with something that in no way resembled the simple orange I had requested on the grocery list. The outer skin was thick like a navel orange, but was HUGE in size. The color was kind of peachy and I knew that this was definitely not an orange and was a grapefruit for sure.

After slicing it open, I instantly realized by color, aroma and taste, that it was definitely a type of Ruby Red grapefruit! No doubt about it.

Sooooo, this unexpected surprise added quite a lot of excitement to my dinner plans. Yeppers. Yay. 

At first I wasn’t sure if I should be thrilled or worried, but went with it anyways. Trying to be flexible, and what the heck, right?

Red grapefruits are loaded with wonderful flavor, vitamins, minerals and nutrients, and are all too often overlooked and snubbed! And I am SO GLAD that I went ahead with it!!

I ended up using that one grapefruit for all three dinner dishes and it could not have worked out more beautifully!

Dinner was a true SHOW-stopper, JAW-dropper, and even my hubby was WIDE-eyed with the smile of a child on Christmas morning!

And that’s what it’s ALL about. 😉  

Links to the rest of this fantastic dinner:

Strawberry Mango Kiwi Salsa with Bell Pepper, Vidalia Onion & Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice 

Spicy Baked Tilapia with Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice

Yield: 6

Fresh Asparagus with Ruby Red Grapefruit & Honey-Butter

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 8 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 bundle of fresh asparagus spears, about 22-25 spears
• 1/2 stick butter
• zest and juice of half of a Ruby Red Grapefruit
• 1 tsp. honey
• salt and coarse ground black pepper to taste
• 6 flat leaf parsley leaves, finely julienned

Instructions

Slice off ends of asparagus where they want to break when bent. Steam for 7-8 minutes until crisp-tender. *Longer for more tender / less for thinner asparagus.

While asparagus is steaming, melt butter in small saucepan. Add zest and squeeze in juice of half a red grapefruit. Stir in honey. Heat until butter and honey have melted. Remove from heat and stir in julienned parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve asparagus with grapefruit-butter mixture drizzled over. Garnish with more zest if desired.