Roasted Balsamic Garlic Asparagus Appetizer

After preparing AngelaTN's roasted asparagus for dinner recently, I just couldn’t get enough of them! I wanted to make them again, but the event I was going to was a non-heating kind of thing, so I decided I'd put together an adapted version that would work well chilled or room temperature, as an appetizer. Here's what I came up with, and it's delicious! I made them as part of an anti pasto tray. Prep time does not include chilling.

• Ready In: 25 mins
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 2  lbs asparagus, medium to thick stems (not too thin)
•  olive oil (or pan spray, but olive oil in mister preferred)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt, to taste
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper, to taste (I like tricolor peppercorns)
• 2  teaspoons butter (not margarine)
• 2  teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 -6  cloves garlic, peeled and sliced lengthwise into 3 pieces (amount of garlic to taste)
• 1  tablespoon soy sauce or 1  tablespoon  Braggs liquid aminos
• 2  teaspoons  balsamic vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Trim the asparagus: rinse the asparagus, cut about an inch off the ends, then use a vegetable peeler to take the outer layer off another inch of the remaining fibrous ends (easiest is to lay the spear on a flat surface then use peeler to gently take off the layer - careful, or you'll remove too much).
3. Place the trimmed asparagus in a single layer on a non-stick baking sheet, then spray with an olive oil mister or drizzle evenly with olive oil (or spray with pan spray).
4. Season with the sea salt and the freshly ground pepper.
5. Place in oven and roast for 8 minutes (don't overcook).
6. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over very low heat melt the butter and extra virgin olive oil.
7. Add the sliced garlic and simmer (again, over very low heat) for 5 minutes - careful not to burn.
8. Remove from heat and add the soy sauce and balsamic.
9. When asparagus is done, remove from the oven and place in a container which has an airtight cover.
10. Place the garlic from the balsamic mixture on the asparagus; whisk the balsamic mixture well (I use a pigtail whisk) and pour it over the roasted asparagus.
11. Cover tightly, shake, and place in refrigerator to chill (please note that the asparagus is still hot in the container, and that covering them and adding the sauce at this point will continue to steam them a bit for a few minutes).
12. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving, the place attractively on serving platter.
13. Goes well as part of an anti pasto course!
14. Note: although I used these as an appetizer/snack, they could also work quite well as a side dish.