Healthy Spanish Asparagus Soup
Sopa de Crema de Espárragos - Hearty and Wholesome Starter
Use fresh cultivated or wild green aparagus for this tasty and vibrant soup - add bacon, croutons and a swirl of cream for an impressive dinner party starter.
This is a quick and easy winter warming soup to make and should take around 35 minutes from scratch until you can enjoy it!
It's healthy and low-calorie if you leave out the cream!
Asparagus Soup
Ingredients - serves four
- 350g green asparagus
- 1 leek
- 8 lettuce leaves
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 litre chicken stock
- ½ glass single cream
- 2 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Salt/pepper
Method
- Wash the lettuce leaves well, chop them up quite finely, and the same with the leeks, but keep them separate. Wash the asparagus and chop them, cutting off the tips and saving them for decoration.
- Heat the olive oil and add the leeks, cooking slowly and stirring for around five minutes, then add the lettuce and cook for a further two minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir it well, cooking the flour for several minutes. Add the chicken stock a bit at a time until the flour mixed in without any lumps.
- Add the asparagus and seasoning together and leave it to simmer slowly for about twenty minutes.
- In the mean time boil the asparagus tips for five minutes in salted water and drain them well.
- After about twenty minutes or when the vegetables are tender, the soup can be liquidized. It is a good idea, but not necessary to let it to cool down a little first. If you’re going to make a hearty chunky soup leave out this stage.
- Break and separate the egg yolks into a small bowl and whisk them well, add the cream to the egg yolks and beat well then add this mixture to the soup.
- Put the pan back onto the heat and heat slowly and gently – stirring all the time. Do not let it boil, and do keep it moving all the time.
- It’s now ready to be served straightaway decorated with the asparagus tips and, if desired, a swirl of cream.
More Serving suggestions
Adding some finely chopped cooked crispy bacon bits or some homemade crispy croutons as a decoration adds a nice colour contrast to the green soup, making it extra special for a dinner party starter or supper dish.
How to make Croutons
Croutons are quick to make and are a good way of using up stale bread. Just chop the bread up into small squares, heat some olive oil and add the bread squares – fry them until they’re golden brown and lift them out onto some kitchen paper to drain the excess oil.
They can be stored like this in an airtight container or added to your soup immediately.
For another really healthy soup try this Gazpacho recipe.
