A fresh and easy asparagus soup in a base of stock, cream, and onion, seasoned with thyme and dry vermouth.
When spring arrives and asparagus are in season, they are hard to resist, right? Those green soldiers salute us as we enter the produce section of the market, challenging us to make good use of them while we can!
Here is a fresh and easy asparagus soup that makes delicious use of our seasonal asparagus. The base is just onions, a little garlic, lots of chopped asparagus, broth (either chicken or veg), and chopped fresh parsley.
We blanch the pretty asparagus tips separately so we can add them at the end as a pretty garnish to the puréed soup. You can blanch the tips while the soup is cooking, so there’s no added time.
We are stirring in cream (I like to use sour cream), but if you are traveling light, you can skip it. A little cream stirred in at the end helps give the soup a creamy texture.
What really gives the soup that special something is the addition of a little vermouth at the end. Sometimes it’s hard to find in the market, but if you have some, use it!
Creamy Asparagus Soup Recipe
- Prep time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6
Want more vibrant green in the soup? Stir in a handful of chopped baby spinach in step 5 with the parsley.
Make sure to use heavy cream or full-fat sour cream, or the soup may curdle. Cooking light? Skip the cream all together.
The vermouth really makes this soup shine. If you don’t have any, try adding a 1/4 cup of white wine to the pot after you sauté the onions and garlic. Let it bubble up and reduce by half before adding the asparagus. Otherwise skip.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs asparagus, trimmed of woody stem bottoms
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped (1 1/2 to 2 cups chopped)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic, or 1 Tbsp minced green garlic
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 4 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth (vegetarian option)
- 1 cup water
- 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup heavy cream or full-fat sour cream
- 1 Tbsp dry vermouth
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
Method
1 Cut asparagus tips and reserve, cut the rest of asparagus into 1/4-inch rounds: Cut tips from the asparagus 1 1/2 inches from top and reserve. Chop the rest of the asparagus stalks into 1/4-inch rounds.
2 Sauté onions, garlic: Melt the butter in a 4 to 5 quart pot on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic (or green garlic) and cook a minute more.
3 Add asparagus: Add the chopped asparagus (not the spear tips) to the onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 5 minutes.
4 Add the broth, water, thyme sprigs and bay leaf to the pot. Increase the heat to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer, covered, until the asparagus are tender, about 10 minutes.
5 At the end of cooking, stir in the chopped parsley.
6 Blanch asparagus tips: While the soup is cooking, blanche the asparagus tips in a small pot of boiling, salted water, until the tips are just tender, about 2-4 minutes, depending on the size of the asparagus.
Drain. Rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. Set aside.
7 Purée the soup: Remove bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Use either an immersion blender or an upright blender (working in batches) to purée the soup. If you use an upright blender, work in small batches, fill no more than a third the blender bowl at a time, and hold down the lid while blending.
For a creamy texture, if you want, press the puréed soup through a sieve or food mill.
8 Stir in cream, vermouth, lemon juice: Stir in the cream (or full-fat sour cream). Stir in the vermouth and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Garnish with asparagus tips.
