It’s been 3 days with no asparagus. Time for another recipe!
This is a cold asparagus soup based on an Emeril Lagasse recipe. This is a great recipe to use with frozen asparagus. We’re still getting fresh from Mom & Dad’s patch, so I used fresh asparagus. It’s a bit of a waste of fresh asparagus; to cook it and puree it and adulterate with it with onions and leeks and cream, but it’s getting late enough in the asparagus season that we’re not craving simply steamed or grilled asparagus any longer.
Serves 2 as a starter course, with leftovers for lunch the next day
Ingredients
1 pound asparagus
salt, to taste
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup leeks, white parts only, rinsed and chopped
1/4 teaspoon white pepper (black pepper is fine too)
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
crabmeat (about 1/4 cup, whatever small can you find at your grocery. It’s a nice touch, but optional.)
sour cream (a nice dollop per bowl. Also optional)
Procedure
Trim asparagus ends if necessary and discard. Cut the asparagus into 2-inch pieces.
Bring 1 quart water and salt to a boil in a pot over high heat. Add the asparagus and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions, leeks, salt, and the white pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the leeks are wilted, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, then the flour, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir to cook the flour, without browning, about 2 minutes. Add the asparagus and the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes.
Purée the soup (I used a blender) and then strain the soup through a wire sieve into a large bowl. Discard the solids. Whisk in the cream. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 and up to 8 hours.
Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish each serving with a heaping tablespoon of crabmeat, a dollop of sour cream.
I thought the crab added very little to the soup. Next time I’d just add a small cooked shrimp or two as a garnish. And instead of the sour cream I’d swirl a bit of cream in the soup. A dollop of sour cream in a cold soup just is a gelatinous blob.
Straining the soup through the wire sieve is a bit fussy. If you do a good job pureeing your soup, and you’re not cooking to impress, you can easily skip this step. But if you do sieve it, don’t discard the solids. I scooped them up with a spoon and ate them. Chef’s prerogative, and they were delicious!
If you can multitask, start the water heating to boil the asparagus, then start cooking the onions and leeks. Throw the asparagus in when the water boils, and the asparagus will be ready when the onion and leek mixture is ready and you can just dump the asparagus and liquid in with them. No need to drain and reserve the cooking liquid and all that.
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