Asparagus Soup

Asparagus was on sale for $1.39 this week and I bought 3 pounds.  Tonight I was not sure what I wanted for dinner so I decided to make some Cream of Asparagus Soup (my way of course)

The asparagus was that really pencil thin variety.  I cut off the ends first. Don't you just love those elastic bands they bind asparagus with?  Do you have a bunch of them like I do in the catch all drawer?  Anyhow, I steamed the asparagus in the fry pan. I like to do it this was because it comes out straight and looks pretty on the plate.  With just a little water in the bottom of the pan it steams very quickly.

Then the steamed asparagus was placed in the blender with 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of 1/2 & 1/2 and pureed.  It was poured into a sauce pan into which I added some garlic salt, pepper, a pat of butter and heated it up.  I tasted it and it was a bit thin so I added about a 1/3 of a cup of powdered mashed potato mix.  Stirring well till hot it was just yummy.  I drank it out of a mug and it was delicious if I do say so myself.  A good simple taste of Spring that did not take long to make at all.

I have tried lots of recipes in the past some with chicken stock and one that added cream cheese as a thickener.  The mashed potatoes worked for me and I could make it as thick as I wanted to or as they say in the cook books "to taste".

I still have more asparagus to do something with tomorrow.  Maybe stir fried chicken and asparagus with brown rice.