Happy New Year everyone! This is my first post of the new year, the new decade. I hope your holidays were spent with family and friends surrounding you, good food and drink were enjoyed and hopefully you had the time and thoughtfulness to think about those less fortunate.
January is a month of resolutions, goal-setting and usually a return to a more normal, leaner diet than that of the holidays. As a Greek, I’ve always believed in everything in moderation and although I indulged in December, I’m guilt-free, did not go overboard with desserts and I won’t find it difficult to return to lighter fare.
One of the soups that I enjoyed during the holidays is packed with flavour, elegant and very easy to prepare. I’ve named this soup “creamy” for its texture.
I use grated potatoes as a thickener rather than cups of heavy cream. Oh, don’t worry – some cream is added at the end but just enough to smooth the flavours of the soup.
All great soups (including this one) start with a good stock. Take a couple of chicken carcasses or one whole old chicken (more flavour) and add it into a large pot with an onion (quartered), chopped carrot and celery. Cover enough enough cold water to submerge everything and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 90 minutes and allow to cool.
The easiest way (my favourite way) to skim/remove the fat from the stock is to either place in the fridge overnight or outside (covered and safe from animals). The fat rises to the top and it solidifies. You now can easily scoop the fat with a spoon and discard it. You’re left with a clear, gelatinous stock that can be stored/frozen or used immediately to make a delicious soup.
The next component of this soup is the flavouring. I’m a firm believer that all the best best soups contain leeks. Onions are perfectly fine but if you can get a hold of leeks – use them.
The thickener of the soup are starchy Russet or baking potatoes. After your leeks are softened and translucent, pass the potatoes through the large holes of your box grater and saute for five minutes and add some water if you soup base becomes too dry or gluey.
The rest of the soup is easy…the fibrous, woody bottoms of the asparagus are discarded and the stems go into the soup. The tips are cut off, blanched and reserved for the very end of the soup.
Puree your soup with an immersion hand-blender, add the asparagus tips and your cream and adjust seasoning. You’ll have an elegant, delicate soup that’s fit for a Monday lunch or weekend dinner.
Creamy Asparagus Soup
1/4 cup olive oil
3 leeks (white parts), rinsed well of any dirt and grit and finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried thyme
3 Russet (starchy) potatoes
8-9 cups of chicken (or vegetable) stock
2 bunches of asparagus
1/2 cup of cream (or evaporated milk)
salt and pepper to taste
- In a large pot, add your olive oil over medium heat and add the chopped leeks, bay leaves and thyme and simmer while occasionally stirring for about 10-15 minutes or until the leeks have softened. Now grate your potatoes through the large holes of your box grater and stir in with the leeks. Simmer for about five minutes. If the mixture gets dry and gluey, add some water or stock.
- In the meantime, wash your asparagus and cut and discard the bottom end of the sprigs. The tender part of the asparagus will usually snap-off from the woody part by simply bending the sprig. Discard the ends and now cut the tips and reserve. Chop your stems.
- Add your stock plus the chopped asparagus stems and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the asparagus are fork tender.
- In the meantime, bring some water to a boil in a medium pot and add salt when aboil. Add your asparagus tips and boil for 2-3 minutes. Blanche the tips in ice-cold water for about 5-7 minutes and then strain.
- When your soup is ready, remove the bay leaves and puree the soup with a hand blender. Add the asparagus tips and the cream (add as much or as little cream as you wish) and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve hot.
If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at https://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
© 2007-20010 Peter Minakis
A delightful soup!
Cheers,
Rosa
Looks delicious and warming on this cold, cold day. I’m with you about the leeks, but I don’t always have them on hand. BTW, was it Aristotle who said “everything in moderation,” or something to that effect?
I love aperagus soup, have only made them with white ones.
This looks like the name really creamy delicous.
Happy New year.
Looks so wonderful and I love the idea of using the potatoes for a thickener, looks perfectly creamy!
Lovely-looking soup! Have not made asparagus soup but love it at restaurants. Thanks for another great post.
Peter με όλα αυτά που φάγαμε στις γιοÏÏ„ÎÏ‚, η σοÏπα σου είναι ότι Ï€ÏÎπει!!!
Καλή κι ευτυχισμÎνη χÏονιά!!!
Yum!
This look delicious! One of my all time favorite veggies is asparagus and I’m always looking for new soups to try in the winter, so thanks!
Happy New Year!
Mmmmm asparagus and leeks
Ooooh Asparagu-licious indeedy! Peter this soup looks soooo good.
I hope you saved me some :)
potatoes make an awesome thickener for soups and pot pies and such, so i’m definitely in line for some of your soup. thanks for leaving a bit of cream in there though–we needn’t deprive ourselves completely. :)
Lovely! But I particularly like the spoon in the top picture. So pretty!
Looks great. I like the nice bright color. The last time I made asparagus soup, it was the ugliest shade of green ever.
Hope you and your family enjoyed a great new year.
The soup must taste wonderful. I really get angry when I see asparagus recipes as we have the most delicious fresh asparagus in Greece which are all exported so we hardly get them and I refuse to buy canned ones.
Sorry, I got carried away and forgot to wish you and your family Chronia Polla.
Great recipe Peter! The asparagus goes well with avgolemono too. Will be trying this soon.
Happy New Year Peter! Love the soup…especially the part with the potatoes as a thickener. Thanks for sharing!
This looks so delicious. Asparagus is my favorite vegetable!
Happy Happy New year Peter! What a wonderful soup to start it off with
bookmarked this recipe to try. I love creamy asparagus and potato soup!
Happy New Year Peter. The soup looks fabulous.
Most often when I make asparagus soup, I adjust the proportion of asparagus to stock (less stock, more asparagus) and I puree the asparagus together with the stock and cooked potato, for a very green soup. Your version is a lovely change and I’ll definitely give it a try.
What a beautiful soup, I have to remember to try it when there is lots of fresh asparagus in the farmer’s market this spring
What a gorgeous soup! Rich and elegant and it looks simply stunning. Beautiful color and it seems the perfect creamy texture. Great start to a new year! Happy & Healthy New Year to you and yours, Peter.
Yum! And I love the color of the soup as it reminds me of the sun. Great ingredients. Cheers!
Looks wonderful, and I love leeks. Happy New Year
I love cream of asparagus soup and cannot wait to try this (which I will on Sunday!) The picture also looks amazingly good. =)
Found your site by way of Hungry Housewife. I was intrigued by the comment you made and just had to learn more about a guy who doesn’t prefer a bikini over a whole piece swimsuit:-)
Lovely soup. In my country we hardly ever use cream as a thickner. We use poatoes like you did or other root veggies, sometimes pumpkin or split peas so this one is exactly right for me…hmm more of this and I may just fit into that bikini after all.:-)
Aha! Now I know what I’ll do with the leeks that looked so good at the market on Monday that I had to buy them. They’ve been begging me to do something with them (soon!) and this soup sounds great. Thanks. And (a bit late for new year but just in time for Epiphany) Xronia polla!
Happy New Year Peter!
Yummm mmm Delicious! So right and morish for this chilly weather we are having now.
This looks so delicious, Peter, and much more indulgent than it really is (at least, calorie-wise). I’m with you on loving leeks, that’s for sure!
Totally with you on adding leeks! They add a depth of flavor! Anyway, love the photo!
I need to try making that soup one day, it is so refined looking and tasting!
i’m a bit late w/ this but happy 2010! here’s to another great year of blogging!
I posted a creamy elegant soup too. With leeks!
And asparagus (as you saw) just the other day. We are on the same wavelength Peter. Your soup looks terrific.
LL
Formidable !
I love soups and have a little game for them !
Filia !
Wonderful soup Peter. Love how you thicken it up with potatoes and the bay leaf in there is perfect. Thanks for posting this, I will have to make soon, you know I love the soups you make.
asparagus soup is my favorite but we cannot get them here right now, need to wait for a few more months. Your soup is more on the yellow side is it because of the potatoes? Just wonder. I have been trying to search how to make cream of chicken soup that looks and taste like the Campbell brand (yellowish instead of white). I miss that particular flavor, haha!
Mmmm, that looks so good! And ha ha – that’s exactly how my mom used to skim the fat off stock!
Hey Peter!
I made the soup last week, added some chicken, and it was amazingly good. I want to find a way to make it a bit thicker, but it is great just the way it is.
Thanks for this.