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Peak season for growing asparagus is April through late June.
Photo by Shaye Elliott
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“Family Table” by Shaye Elliott offers more than 80 recipes to ensure that you get the most from every ingredient, every time.
Photo courtesy of Lyons Press
4 servings
SERVINGS
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 pounds fresh asparagus, woody stems removed
- 3 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 stalks celery, roughly chopped
- 8 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste
- 4 poached eggs, for serving
- Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
- Crusty bread, for serving
Directions
- In a dutch oven or stockpot, 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 the 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; it’s such a delicious complement to asparagus.
- While the soup is heating up, poach one egg per serving. Serve the warm soup, topped with a poached egg and grated Parmesan cheese, and another sprinkling of sea salt and black pepper. Naturally, a wonderful crusty bread is the perfect accompaniment.
More from: Family Table
• Breakfast Quinoa with Eggs and Smoked Hollandaise Sauce Recipe • Oven-Fried Zucchini with Cilantro Aioli Recipe • Instant Berry Ice Cream Recipe • Red Wine and Honey-Poached Pears and Plums Recipe
Reprinted with permission from Family Table (2018), by Shaye Elliott and published by Lyons Press.
Family Table (Lyons Press, 2018) by Shaye Elliott proves that a homesteading dream can become a fruitful reality. Elliott brings readers recipes that stem directly from her own experience working her family’s farm, from complex dishes to simple sauces and butters. The following excerpt is her recipe for asparagus soup with poached eggs.
Around here asparagus often grows wild by the sides of the orchards and pastures. I am always eager and happy to see it arrive on the market tables each spring. Some I pickle, some we eat fresh, and even more I whirl into this soup.
