I was on a work trip in Oklahoma City several years ago and had a delicious bowl of cream of asparagus soup at a cute cafe, and I spent a year trying to recreate my own version of this heart-warming soup. With the collaboration of my family's ideas, I have come up with a version of soup that I serve for our formal holiday meals as a starter course.
Ingredients
- slices bacon: 3 piece
- bacon drippings: 1 Tbsp
- butter: 0.25 cup
- stalks celery: 3 piece (chopped)
- onion: 1 piece (diced)
- all-purpose flour: 3 Tbsp
- chicken broth: 6 cups
- potato: 1 piece (diced)
- asparagus, tips set aside and stalks: 1 pound (chopped, fresh)
- salt and ground black pepper: (to taste)
- fresh mushrooms: 1 pack (8 ounce pack, sliced)
- half-and-half cream: 0.75 cup
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet, and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon slices on a paper towel-lined plate. Crumble bacon when cool; set aside. Reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon drippings.
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Melt butter with drippings in a saucepan over medium heat.
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Cook and stir celery and onion in the saucepan until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes.
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Whisk flour into the mixture and cook for 1 minute.
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Whisk in chicken broth and bring to a boil.
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Add potato and chopped asparagus stalks, reserving the asparagus tips for later. Season with salt and ground black pepper.
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Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
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Pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot.
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Cook and stir mushrooms and asparagus tips in the same skillet used for bacon until mushrooms give up their liquid, 5 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and ground black pepper, if needed.
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Stir mushrooms, asparagus tips, and half-and-half cream to pureed soup. Cook until thoroughly heated.
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Garnish soup with crumbled bacon.