For Jason’s and my two-person Thanksgiving festivities, we started off with a lunch of Asparagus Soup. It’s light and delicious. A recipe I’d made about a year ago from The Greatest Ever Vegetarian Cookbook, edited by Graimes.
Asparagus Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb asparagus
3 tbsp butter
6 sliced shallots
2 tbsp flour
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock (can substitute with water)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup milk
1/2 cup single cream (I used heavy whipping cream as that’s what I had. It made it more of a winter soup than the original one I made which was much more summer.)
2 tsp chopped fresh chervil
salt and pepper
Cut off the tops of the asparagus and set aside. I just broke them naturally where they would. Cut the remaining asparagus into slices.
Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a large saucepan. Add shallots and gently fry them for 2-3 minutes until they’re soft, but not browned.
Add asparagus and fry over low heat for about 1 minute.
Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Add stock and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and half cover the pan. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the asparagus is very tender.
Cool slightly and then process the soup in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Pour the soup slowly through a sieve back into the saucepan. Add the milk by pouring and stirring it through the sieve, with the asparagus, so as to extract the maximum amount of asparagus puree. Work the puree through with a wooden spoon.
Melt the remaining butter and fry the asparagus tips gently for 3-4 minutes to soften.
Heat the soup gently for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the cream and the asparagus tips. Continue to heat gently and serve sprinkled with chopped fresh chervil.
I wonder if it’s possible to make this with skim milk, soy milk, or oat/rice/almond/something milk, for overall less fat, and still taste good? I just adore asparagus, but somehow it’s so good just steamed plain by itself that corrupting it with large amounts of dairy product seems a bit weird. However, I’m still intrigued, mostly because of the shallots, which are the very best of the onion family.
I’m actually pretty sure that last time I made this, I used soy milk instead of regular milk. I definitely used single cream, instead of heavy whipping cream. (Only used that this time because I had some in my fridge.)