Vegan Cream of Asparagus Soup
It's February and it's still cold here. I realize that sounds ridiculous to most of you; February is the dead of winter after all. But here in Southern California, it is often warm enough to have turned the heat off already, and the windows open. Not to mention the fact that there is a definite improvement in the quality and variety of the produce we can find at our local farmer's market. This weekend we bought plenty of asparagus, but it's been cold and rainy the last few days... soup weather, not grilled veggie weather.
Tonight, Jane made Vegan Cream of Asparagus Soup. Yum! Here's her recipe:
Ingredients:
3 pounds asparagus (thickness irrelevant)2 Tbs Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
1 large white onion, finely chopped
1 Tbs minced garlic
6 C vegetable stock
1/2 C flour
1/3 C nutritional yeast flakes
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Clean and chop the asparagus, reserving the tips.
- Add margarine to stock pot and melt. Then add onion and cook until translucent, about ten minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute or so.
- Add asparagus (keeping tips reserved) and saute on medium flame for about 10 minutes. Slowly add flour to vegetables and saute for five minutes. Mixture will be thick. Add two to three cups of vegetable stock, until vegetables are covered.
- Lower flame and use an immersion blender to puree the mixture. (by the way, Jane really loves the Pink Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender.) Slowly add in the remaining vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to low. Stir in nutritional yeast flakes slowly making sure no lumps form. Add salt and pepper to taste and reserved tips. Allow to cook for an additional five minutes. Serves 4 - 6.
Jane serves this with a loaf of crusty rustic bread, and a large green salad.
Vegan Cream of Asparagus Soup is our first "published" recipe. It is our plan to post two recipes per month, but we'll see how well that goes over with all of you. There are certainly loads of excellent recipes out there already, and some really wonderful cookbooks. Let us know what you think.
Related Information:
Sounds great. We’ll try this next week. Thanks!
Recipes are always a good idea! This one sounds wonderful. I can’t wait until asparagus is in season.
I’ve been looking for a vegan soup like this to serve to my vegan friends and this is elegant and perfect! You’ve got some great stuff here, I’ll have to check out your archives for some inspiration. Thank you!
This looks pretty yummy. I just wish we hadn’t wasted our asparagus this past week (note to self: asparagus roasts for 10-15 minutes, not 20… argh!).
I’ve never had asparagus dish before. Perhaps I should try it, looks yummy and healthy.
Wow, okay everyone… more recipes to follow.
As for this dish. We both really enjoyed it, and hope you all do too!
(Haney, if you’ve never tried asparagus, it’s delicious. But you should be aware that it can cause your urine to take on an unpleasant odor very shortly after eating… see Wikipedia’s explanation.)
I’m not vegan but I love asparagus and I want to try this one out.
Thanks for participating in MIFS.
Hi Tips,
If you’re like Jane, you’ve already bookmarked more recipes than you’re likely to try… But I hope you do give this one a spin. She said it was relatively easy and we both really enjoyed it.
Sounds yummy. Cream of Asparagus is one of my favorites. Thanks for submitting this to the Soup to Nuts Carnival First Course hosted at http://www.healthplansplus.blogspot.com.
Hi Helene,
I can’t decide if I like this better or roasted asparagus. Either way, yum. Good luck with the carnival.
Is there a substitution available for the yeast flakes? Just wondering…
Hi Roxy,
(sorry for the late response)
The nutritional yeast adds a cheesy, salty flavor to the soup. You could always omit it and add salt if necessary. Since nutritional yeast is a good source for B12, we try to incorporate it wherever possible.
There are no substitutes for nutritional yeast. Are you having trouble finding it? You can usually find it in a health food store, or whole foods (if you have one). Many vitamin stores will also carry it. Just make sure you’re getting nutritional yeast, not brewers yeast (which is not the same thing at all).
I just made this for my mom, who has moved in with me. I hope she likes it. She is 88. I think it is yummy. Thank you.
[...] 5. Comfort food: it’s not an oxymoron and nothing like canned soup. Veganbits shares Jane’s Vegan Cream of Asparagus Soup. [...]