Saturday, April 20, 2019

Aspargessuppe (Danish-style asparagus soup) for #Soupsaturdayswappers

It's April already, can you believe it?
Yeah, me neither, and it's also time for our Soup Saturday Swappers.
 
Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla is our hostess this month and she suggested a theme of Soups made with Spring Produce.

And I know it's kinda cliche, but I picked Asparagus for my soup.
Asparagus Soup

It's plentiful at this time of the year, and it tastes great.

When I can find it on sale, for a reasonable price we tend to eat it as often as we can.
I like the big meaty stems, not the thin grass-like ones, I just think they taste better.  
And...
I wanted to make another Danish Soup.
We Danes love  our Asparagus, we use it everywhere we can think of it, almost.

With the exception of desserts. 
At least I haven't found a recipe using Asparagus in a dessert yet.   It could happen.

When I lived in Denmark I found out that white Asparagus is prized above the green.  My cousin's wife would go out to her Asparagus bed, and carefully heap more mulch and dirt around the sprouting Asparagus to keep it nice and white.  It also had the benefit of growing lovely fat little spears.
When I was growing it, I couldn't be bothered, and would go out to the Asparagus bed and watch them as they grew, and hurry up and harvest enough for a meal, several times a week.  I miss my fresh Asparagus bed. sigh.

Enough with the memories.
This soup is so good, and fairly quick to make and best of all, makes use of those ends that you usually discard.

I have to admit to not only using my immersion blender to blend the soup, but I also did strain the soup to make it super silky and smooth.
Cooking the stems
Very important to temper the egg yolks, otherwise they make a bit of a nasty surprise in the soup.  I learned that the hard way with another soup. 
Asparagus Soup
 With just a drizzle of creme fraiche, not included in the original recipe, but not a bad idea either. You could also just use the cream as written.
Asparagus Soup
 Just for fun, I added a little freshly ground pepper to the top.  Can't say it added that much flavor, but it looked good.




Aspargessuppe (Danish-style asparagus soup)

Yield: 2 Servings
Author:
prep time: 5 Mcook time: 30 Mtotal time: 35 M
This light, bright soup can be served year round, using either fresh or canned Asparagus.

ingredients:

  • 1 lbs fresh asparagus (peel the tough ends if you like, reserving the peels)
  • 3-4 cups. Chicken Stock (you can also use Vegetable stock so long as it's not too strongly flavored)
  • 1 oz. butter, softened
  • 3 tbsp. flour
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tbsp. cream (you can also use milk)
  • salt and white pepper to taste

instructions:

  1. Rinse asparagus and cut into bite-sized pieces. If you are using a bunch of asparagus, separate the tips from the stalks and reserve the tips. Put the asparagus stalks in a pot with the stock and cook until the asparagus is soft, about 10-15 minutes (if you have tips, add them for the last 5 minutes). 
  2. Remove the asparagus pieces from the broth and set them aside. Cream the butter and the flour together. Whisk the butter and flour into the hot stock and boil for 5 minutes.  This 'cooks' the flour, and you don't taste the raw flour. 
  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the cream or milk. Whisk in a little hot stock, this tempers it and prevents the egg yolks from cooking and getting stringy. Reduce the heat under the soup and return the egg-broth mixture to the pot, stirring constantly. It's important not to boil the soup now, or the yolk will curdle.
  4. Return the asparagus pieces to the soup and gently reheat. Season with salt and pepper
NOTE:  I like to peel the tough ends of the Asparagus stocks, and simmer the peelings in with the stock for a few minutes, then strain them out and discard the peel.  You can also simmer the peeled stalks in the broth and puree them before adding the asparagus tips.  I also elected to strain the soup, because I wanted it nice and silky and smooth.

All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2020, with all rights reserved thereof.

This recipe and many more Danish Recipes are in my cookbook Hygge- Danish Food and Recipes Dansk Mad og Opskrifter til et Hyggeligt Hjemme, available on Amazon. Also available as an ebook.
Created using The Recipes Generator
Sidsel Munkholm - Author
Sidsel Munkholm - Author

Sid loves to cook, feed people and have fun in the kitchen. She shares her successes and the involuntary offerings she sometimes gives the kitchen goddess as well. And she's still looking for the mythical fairy to help her clean the kitchen after a marathon cooking session. Currently working on a cookbook showcasing the recipes from her Danish heritage.

6 comments:

  1. Love asparagus soup....Love asparagus anything just like you. Asparagus dessert...hmmm you have me thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just googled asparagus in dessert and found a few ideas, I may just have to play a little here.

      Delete
  2. Asparagus dessert? Hmmm...I hope you figure one out one day. Maybe asparagus bread instead of zucchini bread???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've actually got a couple of ideas, and you've just given me another. I need to buy more asparagus.

      Delete
  3. I love the drizzle on the top! This soup sounds delicious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I couldn't resist the drizzle. And the fact that the creme fraiche also complemented the soup didn't hurt either.

      Delete

I love to hear from my readers, so please feel free to drop me a note, let me know if you like something I made, it makes my day.