- Cream of Asparagus Soup

Fellow Q-linarians,
This is a reprise of a recipe from Sept. 2008 which we came across today and cannot help but make. 
Sincerely, 
King Guthrie 


Dear Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

I, King Guthrie, Gute of Gutes, have made a smooth and warming concoction of asparagus soup for our lunch which Elias, my brother and alpha, calls "Asparagute Soup." We have an amicable relationship.

Here's how I made it before I returned to my chair for my afternoon of sleep - and watching the perimeter for any sign of threat or danger, of course.

Creamy Asparagus Soup
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3

Oil (grapeseed or coconut)
1/2 pound white onion
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons arrowroot or flour
1/2 pound asparagus
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried sage or savory
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
chives for garnish

Heat up your favorite cast iron (you'll see why later) pan with 1 tablespoon oil. Chop the onion and saute with the garlic about 3 minutes. Add arrowroot or flour and saute 3 more minutes. (We used the leftover flour from the other day's breading of eggplant. We saved it in the freezer since it was seasoned and still worthy. So it had some salt and pepper in its midst, as well as a possible eggplant overtone. ) Gradually pour in the broth. Bring to a boil and add the asparagus, trimmed and all broken into pieces (see "Preparing Asparagus" post), and sage or savory as your herb. Simmer until asparagus is so tender as to fall apart.

With a slotted spoon, transfer asparagus and much of the onion out of the pan and into a blender. Puree with 1/2 cup plain yogurt. Stir the puree back into the remaining broth and season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. At this point, if you did what I said and used a cast iron pan, you can turn off the heat and let the soup gently rewarm in the heat of the pan while you go out and snip chives from the garden to top it off. You don't want to overheat the yogurt - just warm it to eating temperature.

Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with chives and serve with crackers. We use warm stoneware bowls for a soup like this that is not boiling hot when you put it in the bowl. The stoneware will retain what heat there is in the soup and give you time to leisurely eat it (or wolf it down like us) before it gets too cold.
I, Guthrie, presented this to my girl, Me, and met with her warmest approval.


Tips from Elias: The soup smells utterly salivacious, though I did not cook today.  I was very busy keeping an eye out the window for any foul play as the neighborhood came home from school.


Tips from Guthrie: Always strive to undersalt so that the eater, especially a salt hound, can add some at the table where it will make most impact on the tastebuds. Also, I wouldn't suggest this to just anyone, but say you had cooked asparagus the night before and had the foresight to save the water off said asparagus in the refrigerator. A person could actually use the leftover asparagii  from that meal and the flavorful water in this soup. If you were so inclined. A dog would do it. Dogs don't mind leftovers.