Cream of Asparagus Soup

Cream of Asparagus Soups can cover a broad spectrum from the varying quality of the ready made convenience tinned soups to the smooth creamy flavoursome versions that can be made at home or served in the best of restaurants.

Most of us would probably assume that a "Cream of" Soup will contain cream. The cream adds texture and richness to the soup but thickening soup can be achieved in a number of ways including using cream, cream and egg yolk, cornflour / white sauce and or through the texture of pureed vegetables.

Our recipe uses a combination of techniques to achieve the desired texture, we hope you enjoy the result:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb (.5 kg) fresh asparagus
• 225ml (1 cup) whipping cream
• 700ml (3 cups)chicken stock
• 2 tsp (10 ml) butter
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped onions
• 1 stick of celery cut in half
• 1 medium - large carrot cut in half lengthwise
• 2 tsp (10 ml) flour
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Chop asparagus into pieces and place along with celery and carrots in a pan just covered in water.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer until the asparagus is soft
3. Remove celery and carrots and discard
4. Note how much aspargus water there is then
5. Place asparagus with the water in a food processor or blender and process until pureed.
6. Saute onions in 2tsp butter or olive oil in a deep frying pan
7. Meanwhile bring the chicken stock to the boil
8. Sprinkle about 2 tsp flour onto the sauted onions
   
9. Deduct the volume of asparagus water you have from the chicken stock and discard. eg if you had 200ml of asparagus water only use 700-200 = 500 ml of chicken stock
10. Gradually add a little of the hot chicken stock stirring as you go
11. The flour will swell, blend it in with the stock gradually adding more and more of the stock
12. Pour the stock mixture into a deep pan and add the pureed asparagus.
13. Bring to the boil and simmer. You can leave it like this until you are ready to serve. Just before you serve bring the whole lot to the boil again
14. Switch off the heat and slowly mix in the cream
15. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately

Serving Tip

Cream of asparagus soup can be made even more special by serving it with home-made crutons or melba toast.

Other Soup Recipes

If this Cream of Asparagus Soup wasn't quite what you were looking for these other Asparagus Soups might be. Or you might like to browse our full list of Asparagus Recipes.

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