A Little Bit of Spring

This is the recipe for the Chilled Asparagus Soup that we had for our Easter Dinner. The inspiration for the recipe came from wanting to have the beautiful green of asparagus for my spring celebration dinner, but did not want to just serve steamed asparagus.  I searched for a recipe that was simple and would have the flavor of spring.  I started with a recipe from Rachael Ray's website and went from there.

Chilled Asparagus Soup

3 Tablespoons of butter (divided)

2 leeks

1 bunch of asparagus

3 cups chicken broth

1 Tablespoon flour

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Clean leeks making sure to get rid of all of sand.  Thinly slice the leeks.  Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in saucepan over medium high heat.  Add leeks and a sprinkle of kosher salt.  Cook leeks for a couple of minutes until they are starting to wilt.  Meanwhile remove woody end of asparagus and roughly chop asparagus.  Add asparagus to leeks and saute for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of chicken broth and cook until asparagus in tender. Meanwhile,  in another small saucepan melt the remaining butter.  Stir in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes to get rid of the flour taste.  Whisk in 1 cup of chicken broth and cook until slightly thickened.  Add thickened chicken broth to asparagus mixture and stir to blend.  Remove from heat and using immersion blender, blend until smooth.  (If you do not have an immersion blender, may be done in regular blender.  Make sure to do blend in batches, never filling the blender more then half full and making sure to vent.  Hot things when added to a blender expand so blend carefully)  Once soup is smooth add the remaining 1 cup of chicken broth and cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Stir to blend.  Cool slightly and then place in refrigerator until chilled.  I served my soup as an appetizer in espresso cups.  I topped the soup with Greek yogurt that I mixed in juice from 1/2 lemon, cubed pancetta that I crisped up in a skillet and fresh chives.  This soup is also good warm.  It has a different taste to it, but still yummy.