Cream of asparagus soup with goat cheese
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
soup:
- 2 medium onions
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme or fresh leaves
- 2 tablespoons frying oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 lb (500g) potatoes
- 2 lbs (1 kg) green asparagus
- 6 cups (1.5 l) vegetable broth or chicken broth
- 4 heaped tablespoons soft goat cheese 5 oz/140 g
- 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice or to taste
- salt and black pepper to taste
to finish, optional:
- 3 tablespoons goat cheese + 1 tablespoon lemon juice/milk
- pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Prepare all the vegetables and aromatics: Wash the asparagus, cut off the woody ends, cut it into 1 inch (3 cm) pieces. Dice the onion, cut the garlic into thin slices. Peel the potatoes cut them into 1-inch (3 cm) chunks.
- Cook: In a large pot, heat the oil, add the onion and thyme (if using dried), cook for about 5 minutes over low heat until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. If you‘re using fresh thyme add it with the garlic. Transfer the onion and garlic to a plate.
- Add the potatoes (you can add a little more oil if necessary) and cook for about 5 minutes over high heat, stirring from time to time, until nicely browned.
- Simmer: Add the onion and garlic back to the pot, then add the asparagus and broth. Scrape with a spatula brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Simmer over low heat for about 10-15 minutes, until the asparagus and potatoes are tender.
- Season: Take the pot off the heat, add the goat cheese and lemon juice (you can add a little less lemon juice now and after blending the soup add a little more to your taste, the soup should be just slightly sour). Using a blender, puree the soup until smooth, season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve: You can serve the soup with the goat cheese sauce (just mix the goat cheese with lemon juice or milk together, drizzle over the soup) and toasted pumpkin seeds, but without these additions, it will still be very delicious.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- How to trim asparagus: cut off the woody ends where the green color starts to fade to white, so sometimes you have to cut off a lot, and sometimes almost nothing. You don’t have to throw them away - you can add them to your homemade broth or freeze and use later. The 'snap method' is wasteful, the asparagus can break in each section of their length - try it yourself. Cut off only the really woody ends, that are white / very pale green.
- You can omit goat cheese and add 1/2 cup of heavy cream or half-and-half instead.
- The best potatoes for this soup are starchy/mealy potatoes like russets.
- Instead of lemon juice, you can add a splash of dry white wine (after the potatoes).
- Instead of broth, you can also use just water or water with good-quality broth cubes.
- How to store the asparagus soup: refrigerate the soup within 2 hours of cooking then store in a tightly closed container for up to 3-4 days.
- How to freeze asparagus soup: Asparagus soup can be frozen but better would be without the goat cheese. If you freeze the soup with the cheese - it will curdle. Stir well when reheating the soup. The consistency will be a little different but taste the same! You can puree the soup again to get a smooth consistency.
- Calories = 1 small serving (1/6 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
Nutrition
Calories: 262kcal