This asparagus soup is light and delightful, and easy to make. The recipe serves four to six and works well with a salad as a light meal, or as a soup course.
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 pounds of fresh asparagus, tough stem ends removed
- 2 potatoes, peeled
- 2 leeks (white part of stem)
- 1 zucchini
- 2 large onions
- 4-5 stems of fresh parsley
- 1 small stem of celery leaves
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt (or more to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 pound of olive oil margarine (or good quality vegetable margarine)
- 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preparation:
Cut off asparagus tips and set aside.
Chop potatoes, leeks, zucchini, onions, parsley, and celery leaves into small pieces. Add to a pot with remaining asparagus stems, salt, pepper, and 6 1/3 cups of water. Boil for 45 minutes or until the soup reduces to about 4 1/4 cups.
Press the soup through a coarse strainer or transfer to a blender and puree.
Return soup to the pot, add margarine, stir, and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil, add the asparagus tips and cook just until the tips soften, about 5 minutes.
While the soup is finishing, combine cornstarch and lemon juice in a small bowl and mix until cornstarch dissolves completely. Stir into the soup and allow to boil for 1 minute.
Remove soup from the heat, add more salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Yield: serves 4-6