Creamy Asparagus Soup

It may have hit 80 degrees yesterday afternoon, but it is mid-October, and seeing all the colorful leaves falling to the ground along with the budding Halloween decorations has put me in the fall food mood. Combine my new mood and Dawn feeling a little under the weather and you have a perfect soup storm, so I chose to make one of my favorite soups last night. I don’t have a lot of soup making experience, unless you count Top Ramen or Campbell’s as soup making experience. In fact I can’t recall ever making any other soup than this particular recipe. If you’ve read any of my other posts you are probably well aware that I like asparagus, so it should come as no surprise that my favorite soup is an asparagus soup. This is a very simple soup, so for any guys who may be reading our blog, tuck this one away as a way to impress your lady.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

- 2 lbs of asparagus (just grab 2 bunches or whatever packaging they conveniently sell at the store)
- 1 large yellow onion (chopped)
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 5 cups broth (the original recipe asks for chicken, I used vegetable)
- Leaves of 2 sprigs thyme
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- A squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- Salt and Pepper

Directions:
Start by preparing the asparagus. I always remove the bases. Call it habit or neurotic impulse, whatever. The bases are often weird colors, dry and just rather icky. The best way to remove the unwanted portion is to grab the very base with one hand, and grab the stalk about half-way up with the other hand and bend the stalk. It will naturally break at the point where the junky part ends and leave you with just the fresh and ripe part. After removing the bases cut the asparagus into ½ in sections. Reserve a few of the tops for a garnish.

Cook the onion in the butter. You’ll need a pretty good sized pot, probably 4-6 quarts. Let the butter begin to melt over medium-low to medium heat. Once the butter has begun to melt toss in the chopped onion. (I don’t know about the rest of you, but the onion I chopped last night really got to me. I started tearing up, which is not an unusual occurrence for me when I am chopping an onion, but at my house I have an exhaust fan I can turn on to help. Dawn’s apartment doesn’t have that so I walked out of the kitchen to grab some fresh air, but Dawn was burning incense in the living room which just compounded the problem and made my eyes just water even more!) Stir the onion and butter until the onion is soft, then add the asparagus and a little salt and pepper. Let that cook for about 5 minutes then add the broth and thyme. Get that cooking at a slight boil for about 15-20 minutes until everything is very tender. I should note that the broth you choose as your base will impact the final look of your soup. The chicken broth leads you to a more typical asparagus green color, whereas the vegetable broth I used turned the soup a more orange color.

While the soup is simmering you can flash steam the tops for about 3-4 minutes until tender.

Once the soup has cooked, puree it until smooth. The first time I made this soup I owned a very old blender. It was so old that the top didn’t seal well anymore. I poured a few cups in and turned the blender on…. Only to have boiling hot water shoot all over me and my kitchen. That was the day my friend Tim Ko introduced me to this little bad boy - the Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender With Whisk & Chopper Attachments (HB-154PC). What a great investment! It makes pureeing this soup a cinch! If you want a smooth soup you can pour the soup through a sieve to pull out any chunks. I prefer the texture so I left mine alone. Stir in the cream and lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

This blog posted while listening to Harry Connick Jr.