I am in love with the world at this moment in all it's spring glory. I'm also in love with this creamy asparagus soup recipe. It lifts up the goodness of spring onto a culinary pedestal that we can all desperately enjoy.
Dramatic? Possibly. But I shan't hold back my love for asparagus. It's the season to celebrate it!
After pickling asparagus last week, I was left with a hodge-podge of tender stems that I'd hacked from the bottom of the spears in order to fit the long, tender vegetables into the quart jars. The woody stems had already been removed, so what was left was just good ‘ol asparagus. Except without the pretty tapered head.
And thus, a recipe was born.
By all means, if you've got pretty asparagus – use it! But just remember we're going to cream this soup into oblivion so it doesn't really matter what the asparagus looks like. Big ones. Fat ones. Skinny ones. Short ones. Broken ones. All asparagus are welcome in this creamy asparagus soup recipe.
By the way, I really need someone to teach me how to grow asparagus. It still doesn't make sense to me. I've seen it grown… I've seen those little asparagus rise from the ground all freaky like… I've seen it harvested with a small blade at ground level… but I still don't get it. What are all those crazy roots about? And how do you break it apart to plant it? And what about the teeny little asparagus that shoot out the side of the plant and get all feathery?
The world is a mystery.
What's not a mystery is how delicious this soup is. Refreshing. Perky. Creamy. And a perfect nod to this beautiful season.
Creamy Asparagus Soup Recipe
You will need:
– 1/4 cup butter (watch my video on how to make butter here)
– 2 pounds of fresh asparagus, woody stems removed
– 3 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
– 4 pieces of celery, roughly chopped
– 8 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
– Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
– Squeeze of lemon juice, to taste
– 2 pastured eggs, per serving
– Crusty bread, for serving
– Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
1. In a dutch oven or stock pot, melt the butter. Once melted, add in the asparagus, onions, and celery. Gently soften the vegetables for 5 to 10 minutes. Don't brown or color them. Just geeeenntttllly soften them. We want to keep all that delicious color!
2. Once the vegetables are softened, pour in the chicken stock (or scoop in… mine was extra gelled this time!). The better the stock the better the soup. Just sayin'. Click here to find out how I make mine.
3. Transfer the soup to a blender (or use an immersion blender like this one). I'm very blessed to have my Vitamix and am continually blown away by how smooth it can get a soup like this. For years, I utilized an immersion blender for such tasks – which are great. But the Vitamix takes the pureed soup concept to an entirely new level of creaminess. If my house caught on fire, I'd grab my children and my Vitamix. That's how much I love it.
But don't worry. I'd probably grab my children first. I think, anyway.
I kid.
Anyway. Blend that soup until it's perfectly smooth. That's what I'm trying to say here.
4. Once the soup is smooth, return it once again to the dutch oven and gently heat it up over medium heat. Season to taste with sea salt and pepper – I'm not going to give you precise measurements because the amount you'll need will be greatly determined by the brand and type of broth that you utilize. So taste it. And get it to that magic spot with your palette.
If the soup needs a bit of a pick me up, give it a nice squeeze of lemon juice – such a delicious compliment to asparagus. Again, utilize your taste buds! Find your happy place in this soup.
5. While the soup is heating up, gently poach two eggs per serving. Serve the warm soup, topped with the poached eggs, and another sprinkling of sea salt and black pepper. Naturally, a wonderful crusty bread is the perfect accompaniment. Click here for my favorite crusty bread recipe.
I love that this vegetarian entree offers up so much flavor – between the fresh asparagus and the rich pastured eggs it's like heaven… in the springtime… on your spoon. Truly, this creamy asparagus soup recipe will please.
I hope you enjoy!
For other great meal ideas, no matter what your dietary restrictions, check out the meal planning service I use: Real Plans.
Creamy Asparagus Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 pounds of fresh asparagus woody stems removed
- 3 onions peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 pieces of celery roughly chopped
- 8 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Squeeze of lemon juice to taste
- 2 pastured eggs per serving
- Crusty bread for serving
- Grated Parmesan cheese for serving
Instructions
- In a dutch oven or stock pot, melt the butter. Once melted, add in the asparagus, onions, and celery. Gently soften the vegetables for 5 to 10 minutes. Don’t brown or color them. Just gently soften them. We want to keep all that delicious color!
- Once the vegetables are softened, pour in the chicken stock.
- Transfer the soup to a blender (or use an immersion blender). Blend that soup until it’s perfectly smooth.
- Once the soup is smooth, return it once again to the dutch oven and gently heat it up over medium heat. Season to taste with sea salt and pepper. If the soup needs a bit of a pick me up, give it a nice squeeze of lemon juice – such a delicious compliment to asparagus. Again, utilize your taste buds!
- While the soup is heating up, gently poach two eggs per serving. Serve the warm soup, topped with the poached eggs, and another sprinkling of sea salt and black pepper. Naturally, a wonderful crusty bread is the perfect accompaniment.
Here are some more of my soup recipes:
- Tortellini Soup with Chicken
- Hearty Italian Meatball Soup
- Coconut Chicken Soup
- French Onion Soup
- Homemade Beef Broth
looks awesome! could you do a little mini tutorial on how you poach eggs? I find it so difficult >__<
Great idea, Ellie! I sure will.
I struggle with poaching as well. I substituted soft boiled, and in a pinch grated hard boiled both taste great!
I’ll have to give this a try. Love your cook book by the way!! You said you were pickling asparagus, do you mean fermenting? Just wondering if its the same and how you do it? I’ve only tried fermenting carrotts and the verdict is still out on the salty taste.
Nope, I meant pickling! The recipe will be up on the blog tomorrow! 🙂
Asparagus is the best! I can’t wait to try this recipe!!
I put in 50 asparagus crowns 2 years ago, and this was my first year getting to harvest it for real! It’s by far the easiest thing I grow. I planted them in raised beds, and since you have to plant the crowns pretty deep, we tilled the ground, built the wood frames for the beds around it, and then placed the crowns on the tilled dirt and covered with between 8-12 inches of purchased dirt. This saved us from the labor of having to dig down so deep to plant them. Since we put them in 3 different beds, I covered one bed with 8 inches of dirt, the other with 10 and the last with 12. This gives us a slightly staggered harvest, which is very nice!
Best benefit, plant it once and it will grow and make food for 25+ years!
in a sm, pot add water a pinch of salt, approx tbsp wht vingar.. bring water too just below boiling.. make a whirlpool in water.. not too rough and drop in egg. when you get better you can do more then one,, do not let it boil. gently scope out egg w/slotted spoon.. watch for doneness.. watch master chef, world’s worst cooks. ect. they show these all the time
Hello, I made 12 quarts of your pickled asparagus. I was disappointed…
The flavor just wasn’t there. It was Spicy enough but not tangy . There was no Zip! Maybe I need more vinegar then water. All spices were fresh. Any ideas? Thank you Colleen Dean
Love this recipe and the Best Pickled Asparagus truly is. My one variation is I top the soup with chopped hard boiled pasture eggs rather than poachedEasier for me and I love the texture it adds. BTW this soup freezes beautifully. I will be enjoying the spring bounty for months to come! Thanks,
My asparagus has finally starting to really produce. We have had a cool/cold wet Spring so I have a lot of asparagus. Therefore I found and made your recipe.
It was fabulous! I wasn’t sure about adding the poached eggs, but they were delicious. (I used one of the electric egg poacher/cooker and it was so easy). But, my husband does not like the soup. How should I proceed to freeze a bunch of the soup I made? Thank you!