Cream of Asparagus Soup

We started our meal on Saturday night with some wonderful Cream of Asparagus Soup.  This is a very easy soup to make and it always goes over well.  I serve it with a dollop of creme fraiche and a couple of asparagus tips as garnish.  Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: (Makes 8 1 cup servings)

2 Lbs. fresh asparagus, washed and bottoms snapped off
2 cups water
1 large stalk celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP all-purpose flour
21/2 cups chicken broth (Use vegetable broth for vegetarian)
1/2 tsps salt
1/8 tsps black pepper
Dash of ground nutmeg
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Creme Fraiche

Preparation:

Cut tips off of sixteen asparagus spears. In a small saucepan bring 2 cups water to a boil.  Add 16 asparagus tips to the boiling water and boil for one minute.  Drain and plunge tips into ice water.  This will help the asparagus tips to retain their beautiful green color and stop cooking.  Dry off the tips and set aside.


Cut the 16 stalks from above and all of the rest of the asparagus into 1 inch lengths.

Heat water to boiling in a 3 Qt. saucepan.  Add asparagus, celery and onion to the water.  Cover and heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer for about ten minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  Do not Drain. 

Carefully place asparagus mixture in blender.  You may have to do two batches depending on the size of your blender. Cover and blend on medium speed until smooth with no chunks. 

Melt butter in the 3 Qt. saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in flour. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat.  Stir in broth.  Return to heat and heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir for one minute.  Reduce heat and stir in asparagus mixture, salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Heat to just boiling.  Stir in whipping cream.  Heat just until hot.  Do not boil or the cream may curdle.  Adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve with a dollop of the creme fraiche in the middle of the soup. Top the creme fraiche with two of the par-boiled asparagus tips. Serve with a crispy baguette and some sauvignon blanc.  Enjoy !!