I had some slightly wilty asparagus left over from last week, so I decided to make asparagus soup. Very simple and really good.

Ingredients

• 2 lb asparagus, washed, tough end bits snapped off, cut into 1″-2″ chunkies
• 1 med onion, diced
• 1 large-ish stick of celery, diced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 4 c low-sodium chicken stock (Knorr-in-a-box)
• 1/4 c table cream (totally optional)
• Salt + Pepper to taste

Method

• Basic soup method – melt butter in a good sized stock pot. Toss in onions and celery and saute until all translucent and yummy. Add a few grinds of pepper.
• Toss in the asparagus chunkies and chicken stock — bring to a quick boil, then reduce to minimum and simmer for 20-30 mins or so (I went to 40 and it makes no difference at all).
• Remove from heat, blend with an immersion blender.
• Stir in the optional cream (I probably won’t bother next time — didn’t do much for the texture and didn’t add anything but unnecessary calories). Taste and add salt and additional pepper if necessary.
• Serve in nice big bowls with fresh 12-grain bread.

That was lunch (with leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch). Dinner is 4 bean chili.