Easy
   Gourmet Dinners

Asparagus Soup

          Preparation and cooking time:  30 minutes
     This is a lovely soup for late spring.  I like to make it earlier in the day and serve it chilled, but it's equally good served warm.  You can use milk or cream in place of some of the stock for a creamier version. 

1 medium onion          145gr,  5.1oz
1 small - medium potato           125gr,  4.4oz
12oz (350gr)  trimmed green asparagus          350gr,  12.4oz
1 1/2 - 2 cups chicken stock          450gr,  16oz
2 tsp butter          9.5gr,  .34oz
2 tbs Greek or plain yogurt           37.5gr,  1.3oz Yogurt

Chop onion.  Trim asparagus and cut into 1" (2.56cm) lengths.  Reserve 2 - 4 tips for garnish.  Roughly chop potato.  Heat butter in medium saucepan.  Add onion and sauté until tender and transparent, about 5 minutes.  Add asparagus, potatoes and stock.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are done, about 15 minutes.  At any time, drop in the reserved asparagus tips and boil for 2 minutes.  Remove and set aside. 
When potatoes and asparagus are tender purée in blender, using only as much stock as needed, reserving the rest.  Add as much of the remaining stock to get your preferred consistency.  Add more chicken stock if you like.  I used 2 cups.   The soup can be served hot or made ahead to this point, chilled and served cold.  
To serve: ladle into soup plates, put 1 tbs yogurt in the center and garnish with asparagus tips.

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Nutrition Information               Recipe serves 2            Entire Recipe / per serving Calories:  370 / 185 Total Carbohydrates:  53 / 26.5           Dietary Fiber: 15 / 7.5 Total Fat:  12 / 6          Saturated Fat: 7 / 3.5 Cholesterol:  42 / 21 Protein:  18 / 9 Calcium:  216 / 108 Sodium:   792 / 396

General Technical Details and Disclaimer:

Measurements in this color are actual measurements used for calculation.  If there are no values the nutritional numbers were simply too small.

I try to be accurate, but I do not guarantee it.  I use 'grams' as the unit of weight; with an approximate conversion to ounces.

My information comes from my own digital, computerized scale and the USDA Nutrient Data Library: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/