Green Asparagus Soup
Asparagus soup is white, right? I always thought so. The frozen and canned asparagus soup I've seen in Danish stores where all white. But why not use the tasty green asparagus for soup? It could be a healthier option than the white creamed soup that I've always known.
I got the inspiration from Giada de Laurentis cook book "Weeknights with Giada" where she made a green asparagus soup with goat cheese as a topping. I tweaked the recipe to fit my taste and this is my take on it:
Serves 3-4
Ingredients:
Soup:
2 teaspoon butter
150 g Leeks
2 cloves of garlic
a pitch of yellow mustard seeds
2 bunches of asparagus
1/4 cup white wine
2-3 tablespoons chicken base (Better than Bouillon reduced sodium)
1 quart boiling water
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (optional)
1-2 fresh squeezed lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Toppings:
dry chorizo, thinly sliced and fried to crispy
asparagus tops (save some of the tops, and fry them briefly)
Goat cheese mixed with finely chopped fresh basil and a splash heavy whipping cream.
Directions:
In a 4- to 5-quart Dutch oven, heat the butter over medium-low heat. When hot, add the leeks and the mustard seeds, cook, stirring constantly until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes, be careful not to get any colour on the leeks. Add wine, stock, water, asparagus. Bring soup to a simmer and cook until the asparagus are tender about 7-10 minutes.
Blend the soup smooth with a immersion blender or a regular blender. Be careful when working with hot soup in a blender. If you need a new blender, consider a Vitamix. They are expensive, but they are worth all the money. They can liquefy almost anything and makes soup and margaritas so smooth and creamy. But the best part, you can blend hot soups without having to clean the soup of all your kitchen cabinets afterwards. Just saying. ;)
Season the the soup with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Serve the soup hot with the toppings. Enjoy!