Cream of Asparagus Soup

Asparagus has been on sale lately so I've been buying tons of it and sneaking it into every dish imaginable. Leftover steak, scrabbled eggs, and asparagus. Vegetarian stuffed peppers with lentils, rice, mushrooms, and.... asparagus. Roasted asparagus. Asparagus pizza.....

And now, asparagus soup. Most asparagus soup recipes require very little ingredients, so I wanted to stay true to that. I snipped a few chives over the top (also on sale at the store). I would say it's optional, but they did add a ton of flavor, so I highly recommend them. If you find the soup a little thick for your taste, just add some more chicken stock.

My toddler Mimi even helped make this soup. I can't believe how much she loves to cook with me in the kitchen. She pulls up a chair and stirs the soup, adds the ingredients, and stirs some more. She's very careful and when I say, "Ok, let it cook" she stops stirring, gets down, and we go into the living room and watch TV or play while it cooks. I've always seen people cooking with their tiny kids on TV, but I always thought it was a bunch of hooey. Seriously, I couldn't imagine my extremely active toddler carefully helping me make food. I couldn't even imagine it holding her attention that long. But one day she decided she wanted to help out. She went from running all over the place and not caring about food or cooking, to wanting to help every single time. And it's educational as well because she learns the names of everything and she even memorizes short recipes that we make often.

Baby Emmett is next, but he has to learn to sit up first. ;)

The asparagus

Stir into the onions and flour mixture

Add the broth and heavy cream, puree and serve

Cream of Asparagus Soup
Serving Size = 2 - 3

• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed, and chopped into small pieces (about 1 1/2 - 2 cups)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 onion, diced
• Salt/pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour

1. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, saute the onions until they soften. Add the butter and flour, cook for about 5 - 10 minutes to remove the raw flour taste (it will start to smell toasty after a bit, then stop).
2. Add the chicken stock, heavy cream and asparagus. Cook until the asparagus is tender (doesn't take too long, maybe 15 minutes).
3. Pour the soup into a blender and  puree. Serve with chives snipped over the top.

Linking to: Whole Food Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday