Here’s the deal: I was hungry and I wanted to cook, but it’s lunchtime and I’m busy. Enter this simple, tasty, lightly spiced Cream of Asparagus Soup. It was ready to eat in a half an hour, which is my absolute favourite time stamp for soups. You can run all the veggies through a food processor, if you don’t want to put the time into chopping them, but I find finely dicing vegetables relaxing. It tastes incredibly fresh, it’s warm and it’s comforting. What more do you need from a soup?
I can’t stand overcooked vegetables, so I worry about things like broccoli or asparagus in soup. The quick nature of this soup and adding it in after the aromatics have already cooked, really helps keep anything from being overdone. Oh, and did I mention there’s no actual cream or milk in the soup? A shredded potato takes care of all of that and offers its amazing nutritional profile. If you wanted to throw in a little non-dairy milk after you blended the soup, you totally could, but we loved it as it was.
Cream of Asparagus Soup
Serves 6, very comfortably
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped finely
2 stalks celery, chopped finely
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
1 medium potato, any kind, shredded
5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose gluten-free flour
3 cups vegetable stock
3 cups water
1 bunch asparagus, woody ends removed and chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Handful curly kale, optional, mostly for colour
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, carrot, potato and garlic, and let start to sweat. Sprinkle with salt to expedite this process. Season with thyme and cayenne pepper. Add the flour and mix to evenly coat the vegetables. Slowly add the vegetable stock, the water and salt and mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring to make sure nothing starts to stick to the bottom of the pot. Once boiling, add the asparagus and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Place the soup in a blender with the kale, and blitz to your desired texture (My husband likes some chunks of vegetables leftover). Taste for seasoning and adjust to your liking. Serve hot.