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Creamy Asparagus Soup

Creamy Asparagus Soup

Spring here means strawberries and rhubarb, sweet peas and asparagus, and dreams of the summer bounty to come. Asparagus are everywhere, big, fat, and fresh. And yes, although we can get them all year round, I'm especially happy to eat them in Spring. Not only are they likely to have been grown in the same Hemisphere, and could even be local, their very abundance signals the renewal of the season and a good-bye to Winter. Here is a fresh and easy asparagus soup recipe, a perfect excuse to buy more than one bunch.

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Creamy Asparagus Soup Recipe

  • Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs asparagus
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 5 cups chicken broth
  • Leaves of 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1 Tbsp dry vermouth
  • A squeeze of fresh lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper

Method

asparagus-soup-1.jpg
1 Cut tips from 12 asparagus 1 1/2 inches from top and halve tips lengthwise if thick. Reserve for garnish. Cut stalks and all remaining asparagus into 1/2-inch pieces.

asparagus-soup-2.jpg asparagus-soup-3.jpg

2 Cook onion in butter in a 4 or 6-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add asparagus pieces and salt and pepper to taste, then cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Add 5 cups broth, thyme, and simmer, covered, until asparagus is very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

3 While soup simmers, cook reserved asparagus tips in boiling salted water until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes, then drain.

4 Purée soup in batches in a blender until smooth. If you want a very creamy texture, you can put the purée through a food mill or press it through a sieve. Transfer to a bowl (use caution when blending hot liquids), and return to pan. Stir in cream. Stir in vermouth and a squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with asparagus tips.

Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet magazine.

Yield: Serves 4-6.

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36 Comments

We are still a few weeks away from local asparagus, but I'm collecting recipes and getting ready! I love to use an immersion blender for soups like that, so I can puree them right in the pot.

Posted by: lydia on April 3, 2007 4:13 AM

I bought two large bunches last week and have been eating asparagus *just* about every day. I have never made a fresh veggie soup before but this one has me really excited!

Posted by: Shawnda on April 3, 2007 7:20 AM

Elise,
I save up all the woody ends of asparagus in the freezer during asparagus season and then when it's nearly over, use them to make an initial stock for asparagus soup. I discard them after making the stock and then proceed as you do, albeit using a different recipe.

Posted by: kevin on April 3, 2007 7:48 AM

I love vermouth in soups...it is my secret ingredient in chicken noodle or rice, it's always on hand and doesn't go bad like wine will!

Posted by: Cary on April 3, 2007 8:20 AM

It sounds like such a great recipe. I bet this is as good as the asparagus soup I recently had at a very expensive restaurant!

I have a very faithful 80 year old reader and after he noticed I'm eating so much asparagus lately, he sent me the same tip Kevin gave in his comment, saving the woody ends and making asparagus "stock," . I thought that was so sweet.

Posted by: Kalyn on April 3, 2007 10:15 AM

For a healthy snack, I cook asparagus just for 3-4 minutes, then rinse them in cold water. Put the spears in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil and add some salt. Keep in the refrigerator so when you want something to eat but don't know what, have a nice cold, crispy, delicious asparagus spear!

Posted by: Diane on April 3, 2007 7:48 PM

This looks absolutely delicious. Just wondering, is there anything nonalcoholic I can substitute for the vermouth?

Posted by: Sam on April 4, 2007 3:23 AM

Can any other alcohol be substituted for the vermouth? I have some vodka... Recipe will be great without it I am sure. Yum!

Posted by: Adrienne on April 4, 2007 8:10 AM

Fabulous!!! I roasted the aparagus before adding to the both. Delicious. This recipe is quick and easy

Posted by: Sandi on April 5, 2007 8:29 AM

Hi Sam and Adrienne,
You can skip the vermouth all together if you want.

Posted by: Elise on April 5, 2007 10:56 AM

I just made some and tried it, although I forgot the thyme and I didn't have vermouth, and I used regular cream instead of heavy. Still quite yummy :o). Yay asparagus season.

Posted by: frank on April 8, 2007 2:03 PM

I was wondering if I could substitute creme fraiche for the cream, would that greatly alter the taste too much? I am trying to keep my cholesterol down! Recipe sounds amazing....will def give it a try! Thank you

Posted by: Bradford on April 10, 2007 7:23 AM

I skipped the vermouth and used regular cream instead of heavy cream. It was delicious. This is very easy to make, glad I found the recipe.

Posted by: Janet on October 11, 2007 9:22 PM

Sounds great. Do you think this can be made the day before and kept in the fridge? How about freezing it?

Posted by: Patty on December 19, 2007 11:46 AM

Can't wait to start my soup. I have three different kinds of asparagus, one being very large and purple. My husband doesn't like the big ones so I cut them thin and add to my salad every night.

Posted by: Jane Harrell on April 15, 2008 12:11 PM

Was so happy to find this receipe. It turned out great. We raise our own asparagus so have plenty to eat all the time.

Thankyou

Posted by: Dorothy Smith on April 28, 2008 4:57 PM

I tried this recipe last year and the whole family loved it. This year I am working at a small garden center that sells produce with an emphasis on in-season and locally grown when we can. Even though CT does not have a lot of local asparagus, I put up the recipe to entice people to buy some. The RAVES have been huge! Don't worry Elise, you and "Gourmet" got full credit. Thank you for such a great site that gives people ideas to eat in-season and eat locally.

Posted by: TJ on May 8, 2008 8:51 PM

What are "woody" ends?

The end that is not the spear tip. Often the last inch or so is white and very tough. ~Elise

Posted by: dan on January 4, 2009 6:46 AM

This is one of my favorite soups. I love this recipe.

Posted by: Pat on March 1, 2009 4:53 PM

This soup is simply wonderful; I tried this after making the creamy sweet potato soup, which was equally spellbinding.

Posted by: souper on March 14, 2009 12:22 PM

This is my first time commenting here, although I've run across this site a few times in the past. Very delicious soup! I cut it in half since I only had one bunch of asparagus (which, by the way, were clearly marked "Product of Peru", even though it's spring - haha!). The only changes I made were to leave out the vermouth, since I had none, and to toss in a few chopped button mushrooms that needed to be used with the onion. I would recommend using an immersion blender--handy in keeping the dishes to a minimum. :) Thanks for a great recipe, I trusted this site with my first time making asparagus soup and was not disappointed.

Posted by: becky on April 10, 2009 4:57 PM

This is an excellent recipe! I used soy milk instead of cream and it still turned out yummy.

Posted by: Lori on April 14, 2009 12:20 PM

This is a great recipe, I loved it!
I cooked it for my cooking class one time but I also added a few chopped walnuts which I think made it taste a little different and good.

Posted by: Denisse Martinez on April 27, 2009 5:14 PM

My asparagus bed is producing so heavily right now I am harvesting daily!I do not care for frozen asparagus but love the soup recipe and would like to 'can' it for winter use. Does it 'can' well, and if so what is the processing time?
Michele

No idea on the canning. We don't can our soups. ~Elise

Posted by: Michele on April 28, 2009 5:30 AM

This is a lovely soup and tastes much more complex than it is. We are great soup eaters, and this ranks right up there. I often freeze cream soups with fine results. I second the motion of DO NOT TRY TO CAN THIS - it would be courting food poisoning.

Posted by: carol on May 25, 2009 4:14 PM

This was my first time making a creamy soup on my own, and it turned out quite good. Things I changed: halved the butter in the beginning, skipped the vermouth and lemon juice, and used italian seasoning (which contains thyme) instead of fresh thyme since that's what I had on hand. I also don't know if I had a full two pounds of asparagus (just grabbed a bunch in the store without weighing it, and I discarded the woody ends without knowing if that was correct to do). Anyway, it turned out delicious and was easy to make.

I wish it were lower in fat though--over 70 percent of the calories in this soup come from fat. Going with some alternative to heavy cream might help if you are worried about this, or skipping the butter in the beginning.

Posted by: intensive_purposes on November 24, 2009 2:46 PM

In order to make a vegan version of this soup, I replaced the heavy cream with about 2 Tbsp Tofutti cream cheese and 1/3 cup Tofutti sour cream. I also omitted the vermouth because we don't keep that on hand. It was delicious, the best part of our Thanksgiving meal!

Posted by: Annette on November 27, 2009 6:34 AM

I made the soup as instructed, though I used a dash of dry white wine instead of vermouth. One big caution....let the soup cool a bit before pouring into the blender for puree-ing. (Step 4) I cracked my blender jar when I poured in the hot soup. Made a big mess....

Now have to call Black & Decker for a replacement.

Salvaged the majority of the soup, but it was a bit more chunky than desired. Luckily my fiancee is tolerant of kitchen mistakes....

Posted by: Rick on February 6, 2010 7:04 PM

I saw this recipe and knew I just HAD to try it out, being a huge fan of asparagus and soup (a win-win combo for me). Following the advice of some commenters, I threw in the ends of the asparagus (the "woody" parts) into a pot of chicken stock and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, I chopped up the rest of my veggies and softened the onions then asparagus as per the instructions (make sure to discard the asparagus ends from the stock before adding it to the veggies). I tossed in a bay leaf with all of that while it simmered for 15 min. Removed the leaf before pureeing it all, portioned off about half for freezing (do this before adding the cream) then put the rest back in the pot. I used half&half instead of heavy cream and didn't use the vermouth at all. It was delicious and better than I imagined--make this soup even more delicious by topping it with some shredded cheese and having some crunchy bread on the side. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

Posted by: ruen on April 14, 2010 8:17 PM

Elise,

Can the vermouth be substituted with sherry or cooking wine? I don't even know the difference.

You can use dry sherry. I don't recommend any wine that is marketed for the purpose of cooking. Or just skip it if you don't have any. ~Elise

Posted by: Gayane on April 29, 2010 6:25 PM

An impulse purchase of a 2.5 kg (5½ lbs) bag of mixed Asparagus from our local Suffolk grower has prompted me , an inexperience cook , to ask about making my favourite soup as per your delicious sounding recipe and then freezing it . Should I leave out the cream ( or any other ingredient )and add it/them when the defrozen soup is heated up for eating later ?

Great question. I honestly don't know as I rarely, if ever, freeze soups. ~Elise

Posted by: Paul on May 27, 2010 1:43 AM

I have made this soup several times delicious. I made to the part of adding the cream and have frozen it. Great over the winter for spring soup. I have also made it with the heavy cream and fat free half and half. If you freeze it just add the cream when reheating

Posted by: Cheryl on March 10, 2011 3:58 PM

This soup was a disappointment to me, which is a first! Usually your recipes are always home runs. In my opinion, there's way too much broth in the recipe. It makes for a very thin soup with weak asparagus flavor. If I were to make it again, I would cut the broth by half.

Posted by: Eileen on May 30, 2011 5:20 PM

Just made this recipe over the weekend. The consensus from my faily was that I shouldn't bother maiking it again.

I'm currently looking for ideas of what might be added to the soup to make it more flavorful.

To start, I would try making it in the spring, when asparagus are in season. The asparagus will have more flavor to begin with. ~Elise

Posted by: Lillian Cahill on September 12, 2011 8:10 AM

When HEAVY CREAM is mentioned, does that mean DOUBLE CREAM?

Good question. I'm guessing yes, but I don't really know. Heavy cream is what we have here in the states. I suggest doing an internet search for what the difference might be. ~Elise

Posted by: ACG on September 29, 2011 12:02 AM

I've made your recipe half a dozen times since I stumbled upon it this past spring. I was shocked at how much the vermouth brought the flavor of the soup together! Without the vermouth, the soup is just ok. After adding the vermouth... the soup is fantastic! Great recipe!

Posted by: Marie on November 18, 2011 2:58 PM

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