Cream of Asparagus Soup

Check our Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen Blog Post – Three Recipe, One Sustainable Ingredient: Asparagus

1 pound asparagus
¾ cup heavy cream
1 fl oz canola oil
½ cups chopped yellow onion
1 quart vegetable stock
¼ pound diced, peeled potatoes
1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp dried thyme leaves (or 1TBSP fresh)
¼ pound Parmesan Reggiano cheese rind only
1 tsp lemon juice

Wash asparagus and cut the woody part of the stalk off. Blanch the tops, shock in ice water, drain and set aside for garnish. Blanch the stalks for 5 minutes. Add hot asparagus stalks to a blender with first portion of heavy cream and puree, then strain reserving solids and liquids separately. In a pan, sauté onions in oil until translucent.

In a large pot, add vegetable stock. Add all ingredients except pureed asparagus liquid and solids, stirring to incorporate. Add solids from asparagus puree and continue to simmer until potatoes are soft. Remove the Parmesan rind and discard. Puree the soup with an immersion blender. Stir in asparagus liquid puree and then strain all through a large hole strainer.Garnish soup with cut asparagus tips.

Makes 1 quart

Disclaimer: All our recipes were originally designed for much larger batch size. This recipe has been reduced – but not tested at this scale. Please adjust as to your taste and portion size.