{"id":670,"date":"2014-09-17T12:53:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T17:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=670"},"modified":"2015-11-06T11:09:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:09:25","slug":"not-just-another-aside-dish-cream-of-asparagus-soup-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=670","title":{"rendered":"Not  Just Another (A)side Dish: Cream of Asparagus Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D670&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_1062\" style=\"width: 340px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1062\" href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?attachment_id=1062\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1062\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1062  \" title=\"Asparagus\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Asparagus.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"330\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Asparagus.jpg 687w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Asparagus-100x90.jpg 100w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Asparagus-300x271.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1062\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enough With the Parentheses Already!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I was looking through the blog archives this week (<em>Oh, the memories\u2026<\/em>) and discovered that I\u2019ve categorized twenty-two of my thirty soups as vegetarian.<\/p>\n<p>(<em>Sorry, I haven\u2019t gone so far as to classify which are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epicurious.com\/tools\/fooddictionary\/entry?id=5081\">vegan<\/a> (some), or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epicurious.com\/tools\/fooddictionary\/entry?id=5081\">ovo-lacto vegetarian<\/a> (most), or even <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pescetarianism\">pesco-vegetarian<\/a> (none, yet).\u00a0 Please bear with me.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Now, before you start asking questions about my hidden vegetarian agenda (<em>Don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell<\/em>), my closet MBA aspirations (<em>Statistics show that 22\/30 = 73.3%<\/em>) , or my obvious preference for the underdog (<em>Must vegetables forever be just side dishes?<\/em>), please know that the reason I have made so many vegetarian soups is simple:<\/p>\n<p>I like vegetables.\u00a0 (<em>Except for eggplant, see <a href=\"..\/?p=371\">Ratatouille Soup<\/a>.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it started as a way to differentiate myself.\u00a0 None of my other siblings would eat Brussels sprouts, so I became the designated sprout guy.\u00a0 Ditto with the pickled beets that came in every salad at Woody\u2019s Smorgasburger. The rest of the vegetables just fell in line. Ironically, it took me a long time to learn to like mushrooms, because everyone else liked them, and I still don\u2019t care for melon, but you get the point.<\/p>\n<p>(<em>You don\u2019t?\u00a0 Um, it has to do with identity development or something.\u00a0 Check out<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Leif_Erikson\"> Erikson<\/a>, no, not that one, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Identity_%28social_science%29\">this one<\/a>.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps I like vegetables because they\u2019re more of a challenge to cook.\u00a0 Proteins, which I also love, have all that delicious fat built into them, so making them flavorful isn\u2019t all that difficult. Vegetables, on the other hand, are mostly just carbs and water, so you\u2019ve got to coax the flavor out of them.<\/p>\n<p>(<em>Of course, if you\u2019re lazy, you can also just add dairy products. (See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epicurious.com\/tools\/fooddictionary\/entry?id=5081\">ovo-lacto-vegetarian<\/a>, again.)<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Truly, though, the reason I make so much vegetable soup is that the produce section at the supermarket is constantly changing\u00a0 and that newness tends to catch my eye.\u00a0 Like so many others in this country, I\u2019ve got the attention span of a gnat (<em>You think!<\/em>), and the shiniest thing I see at the store draws me in. (<em>Next week: Ball of Foil On A String Soup.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>This week it was the asparagus.<\/p>\n<p>(<em>Cream of Asparagus, actually. I was feeling a little ovo-lacto-lazy this week.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>I brought it home, cut off the ends and the tips, chopped up the remainder of the spears and saut\u00e9ed them up in a pot with a little olive oil.\u00a0 Once the asparagus got a little color, I added stock and\u00a0 seasoning and let it simmer for a bit.\u00a0 Then I got out the immersion blender to make the mix nice and smooth, added the asparagus tips and half &amp; half, cooked it a while longer and the soup was done.<\/p>\n<p>(<em>And I\u2019m not ashamed to say it was done well, parenthetically speaking, of course.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cream of Asparagus Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 6-8)<br \/>\n1 \u00bd lbs asparagus spears<br \/>\n1-2 T olive oil<br \/>\n6 cups vegetable stock<br \/>\nSalt &amp; pepper, to taste<br \/>\n1 cup half &amp; half<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Cut off the fibrous ends of the asparagus and discard.\u00a0 Cut off the asparagus tips and set them      aside.\u00a0 Chop remainder into small      pieces.<\/li>\n<li>Heat oil in a 3 quart stock pot, add chopped asparagus      and saute over medium heat for 5-7 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Add stock and seasonings, bring to a boil and reduce to      a simmer for 20-30 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Puree the soup with a bar or immersion blender.<\/li>\n<li>Add half &amp; half and reserved asparagus tips to the      soup and simmer for another 10 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Serve warm.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit:Asparagus in Parentheses by the author. (Is there such a thing as overkill?) <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Individual asparagus stalks are called \u201cspears\u201d.\u00a0 Leaves of grass are called \u201cblades\u201d.\u00a0 You can probably think of lots of vegetable weapons you\u2019d like to use on me after this week\u2019s post.\u00a0 Please restrain yourselves.\u00a0 Unless, of course, you\u2019d like to make a comment.\u00a0 In which case I\u2019ll be reading <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was looking through the blog archives this week (Oh, the memories\u2026) and discovered that I\u2019ve categorized twenty-two of my thirty soups as vegetarian. (Sorry, I haven\u2019t gone so far as to classify which are vegan (some), or ovo-lacto vegetarian (most), or even pesco-vegetarian (none, yet).\u00a0 Please bear with me.) Now, before you start asking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,48,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asparagus","category-dairy","category-vegetarian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1167,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions\/1167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}