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Wednesday 18 June 2014

I'm Having An Asparagus Festival!

When you try to eat local food, asparagus being in season is worth  a festival.  Or, at least a few weeks of binging!

Today's treat was cream of asparagus soup.  Yummmm.

Grab a pound of asparagus and cut the woody ends off and discard them.  ~


Chop the rest into pieces about 2" long. ~


Chop three green onions into small pieces. ~


I had frozen chicken stock but you could use store bought, low sodium or vegetable stock.  ~


I like a bit of tartness to asparagus soup and add a teaspoon of grated lemon rind and two teaspoons of lemon juice to the stock. ~


Add the asparagus and green onions to the stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer. After about 10 mins. you should be able to smoosh a piece of asparagus to the side of the pot with the back of your spoon.  Yes, smoosh is a culinary term.  If it smooshes, it's done. You don't want to overcook the asparagus or it will go grey and we want this baby to be green, green, green!

My camera lens kept steaming up, but you get the point. ~


At this point I add the seasoning.  I go light on them because I don't want to overpower the taste of the asparagus.

I used 4 good grinds of black pepper, about a half teaspoon of Himalayan salt and the teeniest pinch of saffron.  ~


Take the soup off the heat and use a blender, food processor, immersion blender; anything you fancy to puree the vegetables.  Do I need to tell you the soup is hot, just off the burner, and you need to be careful not to splash any on you?  I thought not.



If you are prepping this soup ahead of time, you can refrigerate it at this point and finish just before serving.

To finish the creamed soup, whisk a half cup of heavy cream into it.  I didn't have any cream on hand and substituted 1/4 cup of sour cream and 1/4 cup of milk.  Worked great!  Whisking is important because you are adding a milk product to warm soup, with the lemon acid in it.  You don't want it to curdle, so keep that whisk moving!



Put it back on the burner on medium heat and warm to just below the boiling point.  Asparagus soup can be served warm or cold and is great for wowing your guests with an elegant opening course for your meal.

Make an artful design on your soup with sour cream and chives and hope it doesn't sink to the bottom like mine did.  Ooops!

Oh well, I stirred it in and it tasted great with some French bread and chive butter! ~


Let's see, last night was asparagus coated with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper on the BBQ. Today was cream of asparagus soup.  Any ideas for tomorrow?

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