a simple real food recipe :: nourishing tradition’s asparagus soup :: asparagus season week!

I’m kicking off my week of asparagus recipes with soup 🙂Soup?! Didn’t we just decide that winter is over and warmer weather is in the air??

Yep! And I’m ALL about that! But this soup is SO good, and asparagus comes but once a year where I live. So we do it up in as many ways as possible to store up for the rest of the year.One of my favorite ways for long term asparagus storage is this soup. I grab the deals as they come at our grocer, or bargain with the farmers at the markets for bulk orders, and then batch up some soup for the deep freezer. It is so nice when the weather starts turning colder in the fall to pull out something we haven’t had in a while 🙂

I first tried this recipe out of Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditionsa few years ago and there is just no other way I have tried asparagus soup that I enjoy better than this way! Enjoy!

a simple real food recipe :: nourishing tradition’s asparagus soup :: asparagus season week!

 

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Author: From Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions Book

Ingredients

• 3-4 TB friendly fat to cook in (butter, coconut oil, lard)
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 ½ quarts chicken stock (homemade preferable for extra nourishment and to avoid BPA)
• 4-5 small red or yellow potatoes, coarsely chopped
• 2 bunches asparagus, hard ends discarded, coarsely chopped
• Sea salt/pepper to taste
• Garnish with sour cream or coconut milk if you wish

Instructions

1. Saute the onions in the friendly fat over medium high heat for about 5-10 minutes with a couple pinches of salt to bring out their juices and sweeten.
2. Add the garlic and cook a couple minutes.
3. Add the stock, potatoes, and asparagus and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the asparagus and potatoes are cooked through.
5. Use a handheld blender or regular blender to puree the soup smooth. Add salt/pepper to taste.
6. Garnish with sour cream or coconut milk if you wish.

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1. HERE is a recipe for homemade nourishing chicken stock – it is so worth the extra nourishment!
2. This soup freezes up great! This amount makes enough for my girls and I to have lunch plus a little over 2 quarts to freeze up. Double up if you have a surplus of asparagus or find a great deal at your farmer’s market this spring! Catch the farmers at the end of the market and they might be willing to get rid of them at a cheaper price – or ask for a bulk price!
3. This recipe also works great if you have a surplus of asparagus that you blanch and freeze. This is my favorite method for storing unprepared asparagus. I’m not much of a canner. I get large bulk orders at farmers markets when I can, or go at the end of a market and grab up all the leftovers for cheaper. Wash them up, blanch them a minute in boiling water, cool, and freeze flat. Store them up in freezer bags and you can pull them out to add to your soup making (or whatever you are making!)
4. The kiddos will be more willing to eat it if you let them help you 😉 My girls actually love this soup and freak out in the spring the first time I get a chance to make it because they haven’t had it in so long! Let the kids wash up the veggies and put them in a bowl after you chop them. If they are trustworthy to help stir, let them with supervision! My almost 4 year old pretty much did everything but the chopping, dumping into the pot, and pureeing for this batch. She has been cooking with me for a very long time, and is super trustworthy. My 2 year old is not trustworthy by the heat yet but she likes to wash and put stuff in the bowl, and she watches from her learning tower at a safe distance learning how to be safe from big sis.
5. Don’t forget the babes that are starting table food! I had spring babies so right around their first birthdays they got their first taste of asparagus soup 😉
6. HERE is the handheld blender I just couldn’t live without! It is SO nice for soup purees right in the pot which I do a LOT of!

YOUR TURN!

Let me know what you think if you try it!

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday and The Polikva Family’s Family Table Tuesday!