by Chef Marcus Bean
“Everyone loves soup, this is a gorgeous seasonal soup with a fantastic colour and very good for you, it’s also great to make in advance and to eat on the go.”
Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15- 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 12 stems of asparagus stems removed and finely chopped
- 1 tsp Olive Branch Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 50g of unsalted butter
- 1 medium white onion diced
- 1 clove of garlic crushed
- 800ml of vegetable stock
- 100g of spinach
- 4 tbsp of crème fraiche (1 tbsp per soup portion)
- 2 tbsp of freshly chopped chives
Cooking Instructions
Prepare the asparagus by removing the hard stems (keep four of the asparagus heads for garnishing the soup) then finely chop the rest.
Place a saucepan on the heat, add a little olive oil and the butter, then add the diced onion and garlic sweat for 5 minutes on a low heat.
Now add the chopped asparagus and continue to sweat for another couple of minutes, add the vegetable stock bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add your spinach to the soup and simmer for 2 minutes then remove from the heat and put into a blender and blitz in batches.
The spinach always goes in last thing to make sure it retains that lovely green colour.
Once the soups blended put through a sieve to remove any lumps, mix your crème fraiche with the chopped chives and a touch of salt and pepper to taste.
To serve pour your hot soup into the bowl, place a spoonful of the chive crème fraiche on top of the soup and the asparagus head on top of the crème fraiche.