The taste of spring - Creamy asparagus soup
Springtime is asparagus season! Usually asparagus harvest in Switzerland starts around mid-April and traditionally lasts until June 24th: The last asparagus is harvested on St. John’s Day. To survive winter the green vegetable has to prepare for frosty temperatures. The asparagus leaves need around 100 days to prepare for colder temperatures. From June 24th to the first frost it is approximately 100 days.
Boiled, steamed or grilled: Asparagus is one of my favorites vegetables. I enjoy asparagus in my salad as a side with my steak or as a creamy soup. During asparagus season, I always cook a lot of creamy asparagus soup and freeze it in portions, so that I can enjoy a nice bowl of hot asparagus soup for many more months. To cook soup for four persons, prepare
ca. 1 kg of white or green asparagus
1–2 scallions or onions
White asparagus must be peeled while it is not necessary to peel green asparagus. On both the ends should be cut around 2-3 cm or more if necessary. Cut the asparagus in small pieces, peel and dice the scallions/onions.
In a large pan melt
ca. 30 g butter
1 tsp. sugar
Fry the asparagus and the scallions/onions in the butter-sugar-mix for about 5 min. Dust it with
3 Tbsp white flour
and keep gently mixing with a wooden spoon for 2 more minutes. Pour over with
2 dl white
and boil down for a few minutes. Add
5 dl vegetable stock.
Boil until the asparagus softens. Then purée the soup, season with salt and pepper to your liking. Add
2 dl cream
and re-heat the soup.
I love to have home-made croutons that I spice up with garlic with my asparagus soup. For the croutons, I dice some bread from the day before and roast the dices in a large frying pan in some melted butter or vegetable oil and a pinch of salt until they turn golden. I either cut a few garlic cloves or press them directly into the pan and fry the garlic with the bread. Sometimes I add a few bacon cubes and fry them until crisyp. For the croutons, I use my home-made baguette. It is perfect to make croutons but any other kind of bread works well too, even toastbread.
The soup can be prepared the day before. Just keep it covered in the fridge, heat it up before serving and beat with a blender until foamy.. Decorate with the croutons, bacon and chive.
Enjoy your cream asparagus soup!
Craving for more soup?
Click here for the best pumpkin soup recipe!
