Summer Asparagus Soup
Submitted by queenzi
Light summer asparagus soup made with fresh asparagus sauteed until golden, simmered in broth, then strained and thickened with egg yolks and milk. A delicate, thin soup built for warm weather when asparagus is cheap and plentiful.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
90 minREADY
120 minMost asparagus soups are thick, creamy, and better suited to January than June. This one goes the opposite direction: a light, brothy bowl that lets the asparagus flavor come through clean and clear, perfect for the season when fresh spears are everywhere and practically giving themselves away.
The technique starts with sauteing sliced asparagus and onions until the moisture cooks out and things just start to brown. That browning concentrates the flavor before the water goes in. After an hour of simmering, the solids get strained out entirely, leaving behind a thin, pale green broth. The straining step is not optional. Leaving the cooked asparagus in ruins the texture.
Egg yolks stirred into the strained broth add body and a silky richness without making the soup heavy. A splash of milk rounds everything out.
Pro Tips
- Don’t skip the 15 minutes of sauteing before adding liquid. Cooking out the moisture and browning the asparagus is where the flavor gets built.
- Salt the soup when you add the water, not at the end. An hour of unsalted simmering produces a flat, tasteless broth that no amount of finishing salt can fix.
- Use a food processor’s slicing disk to make quick work of slicing the asparagus thin and uniform.
- White pepper keeps the soup’s color clean. Black pepper specks in a pale green broth look muddy.
Variations
- Leave out the chicken broth for a fully vegetarian version. The asparagus carries enough flavor on its own.
- Stir in a spoonful of creme fraiche at the table for a richer finish without changing the recipe.
- Garnish with a few blanched asparagus tips reserved before cooking for texture and visual appeal.
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a pan big enough to cook the soup.
Sauté the onions for a few minutes, until transparent but not brown.
Meanwhile, slice the asparagus into thin slices.
Now add the sliced asparagus pieces to the onions and continue to sauté (over medium to medium-high heat) for 15 minutes, until most of the moisture has steamed out of the asparagus and the mixture has just barely started to brown.
Add the flour to the onion/asparagus mixture and stir well to coat each piece with some flour.
Cook for 2 or 3 more minutes over medium-high heat.
Dump the boiling water into the asparagus mixture.
Add the (optional) chicken broth and the salt.
Simmer for 1 hour.
Strain out the cooked asparagus, leaving behind a thin yellow -green soup.
Thicken the soup with the 2 egg yolks.
Add the milk and reheat the soup to serving temperature.
Add salt and fresh-ground white pepper to taste.
Serve immediately.
NOTES: * A light and simple asparagus soup -- Every summer, it seems, the grocery stores are glutted with cheap asparagus.
Most of the classical recipes for asparagus soup produce a hearty winter-style soup.
Here’s a simple recipe for a delicious, light, thin soup that is more in keeping with the time of the year that the glut occurs.
You can leave out the chicken broth to make it a meatless soup, but it does require egg yolks.
Yield: Serves 4-6.
- The slicing disk on a food processor does an excellent job of slicing the asparagus for this recipe.
You can use a food mill, a china cap, or an ordinary sieve to strain the cooked asparagus out of the broth.
- Don’t try to make this soup as a low-salt soup by leaving out the salt.
It will taste like dishwater if you cook the asparagus for an hour without salt.
Don’t try to skimp on time by leaving the cooked asparagus in the broth unstrained.
It will ruin the texture.
Comments
