A fresh and peppery spring soup, I came up with this recipe one day working in a farm cafe kitchen and found demand grew so much that I had to start making two choices a day, to ensure there was always asparagus available for its fans. It was slow to get warm that year and grey days rolled into each other, meaning the soup season stretched on and on. Such became my soupy repertoire, I could probably write a hefty recipe book.
Maybe one day I will.
For the soup
A good knob of butter
2 x small onions (1 red, 1 white) chopped
1/2 fennel seeds
3 x cloves garlic chopped
2 x stems of celery chopped
1 & 1/2 good sized bunches of asparagus chopped
2 tsps of bouillon powder
To throw in after to taste
A handful of roughly chopped celery leaves
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt to taste
Black pepper
Method
Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan (adding a little oil to stop it from burning) and cook your onions until they've softened and starting to brown very slightly. Add the celery, garlic and fennel seeds and cook for a few minutes more before adding the asparagus, letting it cook while you boil the kettle.
Cover with boiling water and add two teaspoons of bouillon powder. Cover and simmer for around 15-minutes or until the asparagus is soft.
Add your 'thrown in' ingredients to taste and blend.
