Souper Sunday: A lemony asparagus soup

Asparagus soup.

You needn’t tell me that a man who doesn’t love oysters and asparagus and good wines has got a soul, or a stomach either.  He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy.

~ ‘Saki,” pen name of Scottish writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916)

We have been eating asparagus from our garden for the past two weeks.  We have a bumper crop this year and since I don’t like canned or frozen asparagus, the only left to do is eat it day after day after day until the season ends.  Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, wrote about how the asparagus season lasts just long enough for us to grow sick of it and not want to see it again for another year.  I couldn’t find that particular quote, but did find this:

“Respecting the dignity of a spectacular food means enjoying it at its best. Europeans celebrate the short season of abundant asparagus as a form of holiday. In the Netherlands the first cutting coincides with Father’s Day, on which restaurants may feature all-asparagus menus and hand out neckties decorated with asparagus spears.”

~ Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:  A Year of Food Life

It was that book, by the way, that inspired me to plant my first asparagus bed while we were living in NE Ohio.  The asparagus bed is one of many reasons I’m happy that M the Younger and his wife are renting our house and property in the Bogs.  They both like asparagus, they also like to grow their own food, so the asparagus bed has not gone to waste or ruin.

Steamed tips ready to garnish the soup.

The photo I began with doesn’t do the beauty of this soup justice.  Picking an orange bowl to photograph it in was probably a mistake, and the soup was a little on the thin side so the garnish of asparagus tips gave in to gravity and sunk into the soup.  Ladled into a white bowl, you would have been able to see how beautifully green this soup is.

I have tried several recipes for asparagus soup.  This is my favorite.  You can find the recipe here.  The only thing I change when making it is the broth.  I have used a homemade light vegetable broth and, in a pinch, Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base (which I think has something of a celery flavor to it which is fine for this soup).  The next time I make it, which might be soon, I want to try this broth although I might leave out the parsnips.  I think the leeks and mint would be a wonderful compliment to the asparagus.  M wants to try putting a bit of cream in it and serving it cold.  We will probably try that, too.

I am also thinking that this might be a good soup to freeze to eat later.  I am going to give it a try with the next batch, assuming we don’t eat it all first.

Thank you for stopping by for Souper Sunday.  If you decide to give this soup a try, let me know how it turns out for you.  Also, if you have any good asparagus recipes, feel free to share them with me in the comments section.  We’re gonna be eating A LOT of asparagus over the next few weeks.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a harvest this big before (from our garden).

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  176)  Asparagus!!  177)  All the ways you can prepare and eat asparagus!  178)  Waking at sunrise and listening to thousands of laughing gulls greeting the morning from the farm field next door.  179)  Hearing a bob white’s distinctive call (which means they’re back for another season).  180)  A phone call from my granddaughters this morning to wish us a Happy Easter.  Speaking of which, Happy Easter to those of you out there celebrating it!