Asparagus Soup

Asparagus Soup (pg 58) turned out to be fussier to make than I expected upon reading the instructions. I basically took the lazy route all the way through, and it turned out just fine.

Who has the time or patience to peel 2.5 pounds of asparagus? I sure don't. I peeled two stalks, then decided I had better things to do than to stand in the kitchen all day long grappling with now-slippery stalks and detangling the strips of peel that knotted up my peeler. I threw the remainder in the pot unpeeled and said a quick prayer that I wouldn't end up with stringy soup.

You couldn't pay me to peel all this. Okay, that's not true. I'm not doing it for free, though.

The instructions say to tie the asparagus ends and peelings up in cheesecloth and boil it with the stalks. I don't own cheesecloth and didn't really see how this step could possibly add that much flavor, so I tossed my debris in the trash without using it.

Besides the asparagus and the water you boil it in, the only other ingredients are salt, white pepper, and an onioney assortment: an onion, shallots, leeks, and garlic. Considering the simplicity of this list, there are a remarkable number of steps involved to make the soup. Things go into and out of and back into the pot, the cover comes off, goes on, comes off, goes on, comes off.

A very satisfying lunch.

It's a good soup, and there's nothing in it to make you feel guilty. It's so healthy, you won't even feel bad about eating a slab of toasted homemade bread smeared with soft stinky cheese. I ate three bowls full. I know this will come as a surprise, but it tastes like asparagus and onion. It pureed nicely, so I'm super-glad that I didn't waste my time peeling the asparagus. I've discovered, over the course of this cookbook, that I feel much more kindly toward eating massive amounts of vegetables when they're in pureed soup form. Good to know.

Conclusion: Liked it, though it was a pain in the butt to make, so I'll probably stick with Dorie's more straightforward cauliflower soup as a staple.