Since I have had some extra time this week to relax and not cook dinner thanks to Walmart and the Marketside Team, I’ve been working on some things on my continually growing to do list. I bought some cooking pumpkins at Ellijay a couple weekends ago when my family went for our annual apple trip. I spent Monday evening with my mom stewing them and mashing them to put away in the freezer. I am planning to use some of mine to make filing for homemade ravioli over the weekend.
This evening I made asparagus soup (or the beginnings of it) to put away in the freezer. We have been enjoying fresh asparagus all summer long and I took all the trimmed bottom ends and placed them in a freezer bag (uncooked) each time. We had about 8 or 9 quart sized bags! So, this evening I threw them all in a soup pot along with some chicken stock and let them simmer while we enjoyed dinner. After dinner, mom and I took turns ricing the stems with a ricer and we placed the leftover stem parts in a bag for the mulch pile. What was left was a green soup stock. I froze it up in cartons (about 2 quarts) to place in the freezer. Now, all I have to do is defrost and finish the recipe to have a warm, velvety soup!
Here’s the recipe I use:
Creamy Asparagus soup
2 lbs of asparagus
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 Tbsp organic butter
5 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp dry vermouth
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
salt & pepper
Cook onion in butter in a 4 to 6 qt heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring until softened. Add asparagus and salt and pepper to taste. Add 5 cups of chicken broth and simmer, covered, until asparagus is very tender (15 to 20 minutes).
Puree soup in batches in a blender (or with immersion blender) until smooth. OR, if you want a really creamy texture puree the asparagus in a ricer (this is what I do). Discard the solid scraps (I put them in the mulch pile). Return all liquid to the pan and add cream, vermouth, and a squeeze of lemon juice.
