Potato Asparagus Soup #recipe + #book #giveaway from author @DarylWoodGerber

From Daryl:

GIVEAWAY BELOW!

I went to my go-to soup recipe book by Williams-Sonoma. I wanted to make asparagus soup. I bought the ingredients.

Or so I thought...

I did not buy enough asparagus.  They wanted 3 pounds for a full recipe. I was going to make a half recipe from the start, but I only bought 1/2 pound.  Oops.

So here’s what I made,  using most of the ingredients and adding potatoes, and then tweaking to my pleasure.

I love soup. I truly enjoy that I can fiddle with it to make it mine. This is my “half” recipe and it made enough for 4 nice-sized bowls.  By the way, I removed some soup before adding the cream so it was just veggies and potato. YUM.  Try it both ways, if you dare.

POTATO AND ASPARAGUS SOUP

1/2 sweet onion, chopped fine

1 stalk celery, with leaves, chopped

8 ounces asparagus, chopped, (reserve 2-6 tips)

1 very large brown potato, peeled and chopped into 1” cubes

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups stock *

1 teaspoon basil, dried

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1 cup cream

(In the WS book, they make from scratch; I use gluten-free stock. Also if you buy low sodium stock, you might want to add extra salt.)

Fix all the veggies first.  Chop the onions, celery, asparagus, potato.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the onion and celery and sauté until translucent, 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, all the asparagus stalks and most of the tips, the potatoes and basil.  Raise the heat and bring to a boil. Skim away froth if it arises. None did for mine probably because I used premade stock.

Reduce the heat and cover, and simmer gently for about 25 to 30 minutes.

In small batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor.  Each time I finished my batch, I returned to the saucepan. When it’s all pureed, heat over low and stir in the cream and season to taste with salt and white pepper. 

Meanwhile, quickly steam the asparagus tips, for decoration, about 3-4 minutes.

Spoon the soup into bowls and garnish with asparagus tips. Enjoy.

VEGGIE SOUP WITHOUT CREAM

To celebrate the upcoming release of 

 

I'm doing a special Sunday giveaway - winner's choice of any of my cozy mysteries.

 

 

Leave a comment to enter. Do you love cozy mysteries? What's one of your favorites?

Remember to include you're email should you win so I can contact you.

SIFTING THROUGH CLUES buy link

The latest Cookbook Nook Mystery (#8), available for pre-order. Comes out April 23.

What's it about?

Book clubs from all over have descended on Crystal Cove to celebrate the library’s Book Club Bonanza week, and Jenna Hart has packed the Cookbook Nook with juicy reads and tasty cookbooks. But she’s most excited about spending an evening with the Mystery Mavens and their moveable feast, when they will go from house to house to share different culinary treats and discuss the whodunit they’re all reading. It’s all good food and fun for the savvy armchair detectives, until one of the members of the group is found murdered at the last stop on the tour.

As if that weren’t enough to spoil her appetite, Jenna discovers that all the evidence points to her friend Pepper as being the guilty party. And with Pepper’s chief-of-police daughter too close to the case to be impartial, Jenna knows she’ll have to step in to help clear her friend’s name before a bitter injustice sends her to jail. Sifting through the clues, Jenna unearths any number of possible culprits, but she’ll have to cook up a new way to catch the killer before Pepper’s goose is cooked.

Includes tasty sweet and savory recipes!

SAVOR THE MYSTERY!

 

Friend Daryl and Avery on Facebook
Follow Daryl on Twitter
Follow Avery on Twitter
Follow both of us on Pinterest
Plus check out my website

Follow Daryl on Bookbub

A SOUFFLÉ OF SUSPICION, the 2nd French Bistro Mystery.

Can Mimi prove her chef innocent before the chef gets dusted?

Click here to order.

A DEADLY ÉCLAIR, the 1st French Bistro Mysteries, in all formats.

Can Mimi clear her name before the killer turns up the heat?

Click here to order.

SIFTING THROUGH CLUES, the 8th Cookbook Nook Mystery.
Sifting through the clues, Jenna unearths any number of possible culprits, but she’ll have to cook up a new way to catch the killer before her friend Pepper’s goose is cooked. 
Click here to order. 

WREATH BETWEEN THE LINES, the 7th Cookbook Nook Mystery.

Jenna Hart is busy decking the halls and ducking a killer

Click here to order.

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE, the 7th Cheese Shop Mystery by Avery Aames.

Finally there's going to be a cheese festival in Providence!

Click to order.

GIRL ON THE RUN, a stand-alone suspense.
When a fairytale fantasy night becomes a nightmare, Chessa Paxton must run for her life...but will the truth set her free?

Click to order

DAY OF SECRETS, a stand-alone suspense

A mother he thought was dead. A father he never knew. An enemy that wants them dead.

Click here to order

Potato Leek Asparagus Soup #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Always on the hunt for a decent low-sodium soup, I decided to try a potato leek version. Lately I've been using Daily Pantry brand organic low-sodium chicken broth, and it's pretty good--more flavor than some of the others. I also planned to add celery, thyme, garlic and two bay leaves for extra zip. 

who could resist this?

And then John showed up with a lovely bunch of asparagus, so I took the thinnest stalks and sautéed them in a little more butter, to be sprinkled on the top with chopped chives. I'm not going to lie, the soup would be better with a half teaspoon of salt stirred in. But it was pretty darn good as is. And the folks who aren't worried about sodium can add salt at the table.

Ingredients

Three leeks
One clove garlic
Three stalks celery
Three large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
One large box good quality low-sodium chicken broth
Four ounces unsalted butter
Two sprigs of fresh thyme
Two bay leaves
4-6 stalks tender asparagus
Heavy cream
Fresh chives
Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Trim the leeks so you are working only with the white and palest green parts. Cut them in half lengthwise and wash them well, as there is nothing worse then grit in your soup. (Or suit, as my dictation program insisted. And that's probably true!) Chop the leeks along with the celery, and one or more cloves of garlic. Melt three tablespoons of butter in a large pot and add the chopped vegetables. When everything is well wilted, add the stock along with the chunks of peeled potato, the bay leaves, and the thyme.
Simmer until the potatoes are soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Then use your immersion blender to to purée the cooked mixture. You may leave some chunky sections if you like that texture. Add about a half cup heavy cream and stir that in. 

soup is so hard to photograph!

Serve the soup with the sautéed asparagus and chopped chives and freshly ground pepper on top.

We had a salad on the side, but you couldn't go wrong with a nice plate of biscuits or some crusty peasant bread.

The seventh Key West mystery, KILLER TAKEOUT, is on bookshelves everywhere. What about yours?

You can follow Lucy on Facebook,
Twitter,
Pinterest,
and Instagram!