Cream of Asparagus Soup

Spargel Saison!

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion OR 3 medium shallots OR 1 medium leek (washed well, white and light green parts only, chopped finely)
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• salt
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup dry white wine (we used Vermouth)
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable, if you must)
  
• 2 bunches asparagus, tough ends removed, and cut into 1/2 inch lengths
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• ground black pepper
• VARIATION: 3 SLICES COOKED BACON
• VARIATION: CRUMBLED GORGONZOLA
  

Combine the onion, oil, and 1/2 tsp salt in a large saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until softened, about 8-10 minutes.
Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Whisk in the wine and bay leaf. Cook until wine is absorbed, about 1 minute.
Whisking constantly, add the broth.
Bring to a oil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the broth is slightly thickened and no longer tastes like flour (5 minutes).
Add the asparagus and continue to simmer, uncovered, until tender, 7-10 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf.
Puree the mixture in batches in a blender until smooth.
Return to saucepan. Stir in the half-and-half and cook over low heat until just hot (don't boil).
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
If using variations, add the chop the cooked bacon slices and stir in. Top with Gorgonzola cheese.
Eat.

Thoughts: Fantastic soup. And easy to make. And if you don't like your soups too healthy, go ahead and add the bacon and Gorgonzola. Let me tell you, it makes it so much better. There should not be any dish without bacon. Let me say that. Dan says that he's not sure that the bacon did much for him. So APPARENTLY bacon isn't for everyone. But without those two variations, the soup is ridiculously healthy. The only questionable thing in there is the half-and-half, and there's only 1/2 cup for the entire recipe. Not too shabby. I would definitely make this again.

Disaster Index: 1/10. Full marks!

Update: We made this recently, but instead of 2 bunches of asparagus we did 1 bunch asparagus and an equal proportion of kale, washed and chopped. It went well - the soup was quite good. If you don't have enough asparagus, kale works very well. Then I decided that I wanted to stir the blue cheese into the soup directly rather than in individual servings, and this was... less successful. Lesson learned. You can season the soup with some dill. See what you think.

Asparagus Lasagna

Most of the directions are in the "ingredients". I've given them in the order they were prepared. I've made this twice so far, and this was the most successful version. I do all of the ingredients in one pot, incidentally. This works out to be about a half-batch, but I make it in a deep bread 9x5" bread pan.

Ingredients

• 1/2 of a largish vidalia onion or 1 medium onion, sauteed with olive oil until translucent
  
• 3c asparagus, (I'm guessing - bunched up they were about 2-2.5 inches diameter) steamed about 5 minutes until just tender
  
• 1 small zucchini or 1/2 of a large, sliced thin and sauteed in olive oil until tender
  
• 4 whole wheat lasagna noodles (yeah, only 4) cooked until al dente
  
• 14oz tomatoes, cooked with a spoonful of garlic and pesto (to taste). Cook down until reduced about 10-20% and a little thicker.
  
• 8oz ricotta cheese
  
• .25lb mozzarella (total ballpark), cut into thin slices
  
• salt and pepper to taste in just about every step of this
  
• Optional basil leaves
  

Preheat the oven to 350. Stir together the onions and the ricotta until well mixed. Put a layer of sauce at the bottom of the 9x5" bread pan. Thin layer. Add a layer of noodles (because of the size of the noodles, it does not take 2 full noodles to cover, so cut accordingly). Add a layer of ricotta/onions (about half the mixture). Add the asparagus, then another layer of sauce. Add another layer of noodles on top, then layer the zucchini across that. Top with the remaining ricotta, and any sauce that you might have left (once I didn't have any left, once I did - doesn't make much difference). If you are using basil leaves, place them evenly across the top at this point, and then cover the whole thing with slices of mozzarella. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Thoughts: This is a delicious lasagna. It's also like my 3rd time ever making lasagna. I have to say, one of the most important things about this recipe is that you cook down the tomato sauce a bit. Otherwise it will be too liquidy and not as good to eat. Otherwise, this is super good. You could PROBABLY expand the recipe for use in a normal 9x11 sized pan (or however big) but the number of layers really necessitates steep sides, and if you make it in a bread pan then it's just enough for up to 3 people, or for 1 person with a few days' leftovers.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Spinach, Shrimp, Asparagus, and Bacon Quiche

Compiled from a recipe by "Carissa Seward" found on Food Network and "Donna's Shrimp, Bacon, and Asparagus Quiche" apparently from the "Channel 3000" web page.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
  
• 1.5c skim milk
  
• 1/2tsp dill weed
  
• salt and pepper
  
• 2-3 strips of turkey bacon
  
• 2c asparagus, chopped to 1.5-2" stalks
  
• 1.5c (precooked) shrimp, tailed
  
• 10oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed out
  
• 4oz mozzarella
  
• 1 recipe quiche crust
  

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk the eggs and milk in a bowl with the dill and a pinch of salt and pepper. In a pan, crisp the bacon. Remove and crumble or chop. Add bacon to custard mixture and grate in 1/2 the cheese. In the vacant crust, distribute the asparagus, shrimp, and spinach. Pour custard mixture into crust and grate the remaining cheese over the top. Place in the oven until the cheese on top is browned and the custard is set. Took us about an hour. Let it sit 10 minutes before cutting.

Thoughts: Claire felt it needed more seasoning, and next time we should use non-skim dairy, like 2% or cream (like the original recipes called for). I suppose that I agree. I liked the flavor, though.

Disaster Index: 2-3/10 - good flavor, though the texture was SLIGHTLY off.