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Easy and Fresh Creamy Asparagus Soup

Name: Easy and Fresh Creamy Asparagus Soup
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 bowls
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 4 tbsp butter; 2 lbs asparagus; 1 cup chopped onion; 3 garlic cloves, chopped; 1/4 cup flour; 6 cups vegetable stock; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 tsp pepper

March 8, 2020 (Last Updated: March 20, 2020) - As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Asparagus soup garnished with croutons in a white bowl and on a white table.

An essential early Spring recipe is a simple, easy, and fresh Creamy Asparagus Soup. When you let the flavors of fresh, in-season vegetables shine, it is like Mother Nature kissing your dinner bowl. The best part of this delicious soup is that it is about as easy as it gets and you can have this Creamy Asparagus Soup on your table in less than 45 minutes.

Creamy Asparagus Soup Summary

Once again, we are bringing a super simple recipe to the table that has out of this world flavor. For this recipe, first, we just clean some fresh asparagus. We separate the individual stalks into tips, stalks, and root. Discarding the asparagus root ends, we then simmer and sweat the stalks with butter and onion.

Once this all seems tender, we add in a bit of flour that will turn into our thickener. Cup by cup, we add in vegetable stock and mix. Then, we allow our soup to cook for a while longer. Finally, we blend everything with our immersion blender and finish it off with seasoning and heavy cream.

This really is a simple recipe to make and tastes so hearty and nourishing. It really is similar to our homemade Cream of Mushroom soup recipe, but just with asparagus. This soup brings early Spring flavors to your table while you ponder what you might plant in your garden or what household projects might lie ahead. Or, of course, just eat the dang soup!

Cleaning Asparagus and The Anatomy of Asparagi

Did you know that the plural of asparagus is asparagi? Well, you shouldn’t, because it isn’t. I really wanted this to be the plural form of the word and there are some Latin roots that point to it, it isn’t real. The plural of asparagus is asparagus. When we are talking about them, we might say ‘a bunch of asparagus.’ Asparagi isn’t a thing. That is ok. I am still going to use the word because I like saying ‘asparagi’.

All of the Parts

We have already covered the plurality of asparagus. If you take one asparagus out of a bunch of asparagus, you can examine each asparagus spear individually. An asparagus spear is separated into three main parts. We have the tip, which is the very leafy end of an individual spear. Then, we have the stalk which is clearly different than the tip and the largest part of a stalk.

Finally, we have the root, which oftentimes changes into more of a white color than the healthy, green stalk. It is often the thickest part of an apsaragus spear and is difficult to eat, as it is woody and grainy.

The Terrible Root Ends

Have you ever bitten into asparagus and found yourself gnawing on a woody, grainy, end that is difficult to chew? Likely, it wasn’t cleaned appropriately. Today, we are going to help you clean your asparagi so you can enjoy them better.

Take an individual asparagus spear and hold it between your two hands at the bottom of the spear. Bend the bottom third until the spear snaps. This is a pretty good approximation to where the less desirable root end and the stalk separates.

While you can do this with every single spear, that individual spear is likely a pretty good indicator of what the rest of the bunch will be like. At this point, I will take my chef knife and just lop the rest off using that first spear as my guide. The root ends can be discarded.

The Asparagus Tips

You should be able to see the separation between the very leafy tip and the stalk. We are going to use the tips later on and want to save them separately. I basically estimate where the tips end for the whole bunch and lop off the end. I then put these aside.

The Stalks

Now, we are left with the stalks. This is the majority of an asparagus spear and is going to make up the bulk of our soup. We are going to take our cleaned asparagus and loosely chop them into 1” to 3” sections.

A Note on Shopping for Asparagus

When I am shopping for asparagus, I tend to prefer bunches with smaller stalks. If you see short, really thick, and stubby spears, I tend to pass on those, particularly if the root end is really white and the entire stalk appears grainy.

Asparagus size isn’t really the whole story though. You have to look at the leaf ends, how the asparagus is stored in the store, and just how healthy (and green) the entire bunch looks. Here is a great video that talks about picking the right bunch of asparagus from your store.

Using a Blender Instead of an Immersion Blender

If you don’t have an immersion blender [affiliate link], consider buying one. They can really make so many jobs easier. When it comes to vegetable soups, an immersion blender is really a valuable tool. If, however, that isn’t an option, you should be able to use your regular kitchen blender.

You know your kitchen tools better than I do, so my first recommendation is to use your blender instructions and common sense when dealing with blending hot liquids. That is what we are going to do here. After we have simmered our asparagus stocks in vegetable stock for a while, we are going to blend our soup and if you don’t have an immersion blender, a standard blender is your choice.

Be careful when dealing with hot liquids in your blender. Don’t fill your blender more than about half full when dealing with hot liquids. Use a kitchen towel when holding the top of your blender when dealing with hot liquids. Blend in batches. These are the basics of blending hot liquids in your blender, but the most important thing is to just be safe and do not burn yourself!

Really, though, immersion blenders are awesome. As a person who does not like too many kitchen gadgets, this one is worth it!

Lighten It Up With Choice of Dairy

So, my recipe calls for heavy cream because heavy cream is delicious. I put no warranties on the end product, but you should be able to substitute whole, 2%, or skim (what I call water milk) to lighten the load on calories and fat.

I also start off with four tablespoons of butter. I think you could probably get away with two. I am not saying that the skim milk, 2 TBSP butter version of this soup is going to be as good as the full-fat recipe, but I get it. Sometimes, you just gotta watch them calories. Not me. Not today.

Process pictures of making asparagus soup and outlined below.

Two bunches of asparagus that are about 2 pounds.
Separating the bunches of asparagus into three parts. The tips, which we set aside. The root ends, which we separate and throw or compost. Lastly, we have the stalk, which we chop up and this will make up the bulk of the soup.
Here, we have added flour to our asparagus roux.

Tips For Making This Creamy Asparagus Soup

Use an immersion blender [affiliate link] for best results, but you can also do this in small batches in your blender.
Buy fresh asparagus and I would suggest going for smaller spears.
To lighten the recipe, you could substitute whole, 2%, or skim milk for the heavy cream.
Use fresh asparagus for the best results.

Products I used In This Recipe

A bowl of fresh asparagus soup on a white table with garlic, croutons, and some spears of asparagus on the table.

Did You Make This Recipe

Fan-freakin-tastic! Did you love it? I hope so. If you did, you should let me know how it went in the comments section below. If you did like this Creamy Asparagus Soup, it would be awesome if you shared it on Pinterest and Facebook. That kind of exposure lets me know I am doing a good job and helps me make sure I can spend more time on my recipes. Of course, if you want to get more recipes from me, subscribe to our email list on the banner from this page.