My sister, Lynne gifted me with a lovely fresh bunch of long stem asparagus spears. I was utterly delighted and decided to make a soup, salad, stock and tart. Here I share my asparagus soup with you. Be sure to check out my asparagus tart here. I made this last year after again been gifted with and enormous 4 bunches of asparagus. I had not yet explored making vegetable broths and stock then, so I threw all the peelings and fiborous ends away. This year I am exploring more vegan forward, vegetable friendly food choices. I hear more and more people are interested in dipping their toes in this direction too, myself included.
I decided I wanted to hero the asparagus obviously. I have been reading more and more chefs say they have discovered that cream tends to drown out the natural flavours of vegetables. I love cream. It’s embedded in my genes I think, but I am always happy to explore alternatives to at least give them a chance. If it doesn’t work, the recipe won’t find it’s way onto my website. The cannelinni beans and olive oil were just a perfect combination to replace the cream here. I hope you give it a try too. Alternatively add cream if you like, it’s your choice and you are the boss of you.
Asparagus Soup
Ingredients
- 3 Tbls olive oil
- 20 g One stick celery
- 18 g spring onion finely chopped
- 80 g Two leaks finely chopped
- 50 g One small red onion finely chopped
- 15 g Three garlic cloves smashed
- 220 g fresh asparagus
- 1000 ml asparagus peel stock/ broth or vegetable stock
- Half tin cannellini beans
- 5 g sprigs of fresh rosemary 3
- Half a teaspoon of salt and a few cracks of black paper add more at the end
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- zest lemon
Instructions
- To make the asparagus stock, use the peels from the stems and the fibrous ends bits. I will say though if you are buying them from your chosen supermarket, they will already be trimmed down. Use vegetable stock or water. Just be aware, water will not give you the intense flavours. In this case double up on the quantity of asparagus in the recipe. Another alternative is to add baby marrows as I mention below. Not everyone has time to peel asparagus these days, but if you do you won't be disappointed.
- Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan add finely chopped red onion fry for three minutes,
- Add the smash garlic stir for 30 seconds
- Add the Leeks, spring onion, and celery, and stir to coat with onion mix.
- Add 1 cup of asparagus broth or vegetable broth to the pot, stir for 1 minute
- Add the fresh asparagus and rosemary to the pot and another ladle of asparagus stock. Bring up the temperature put the lid on and steam for two minutes switch the pot off and let the asparagus continue to steam for 5 minutes
- Add the cannellini beans and 500ml of stock bring to temperature check the seasoning
- Using a stick blender, blitz the soup to a smooth consistency drizzle in the olive oil to thicken as necessary. Grate in the zest and a tiny squeeze of lemon if you like as on option.