Hard French Appetizer Soup

Cream of Asparagus and Mushroom Soup

Name: Cream of Asparagus and Mushroom Soup
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 95 min
Total time: 130 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 3 slices bacon; 0.25 cups butter; 3 stalks celery , chopped; 1 onion , diced; 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 6 cups chicken broth; 1 potato , peeled and diced; 1 pound fresh asparagus , tips set aside and stalks chopped; salt and ground black pepper to taste; 1 package sliced fresh mushrooms , 8 ounce; 0.75 cups half-and-half cream

Total Time

2h 10m

35m prep · 95m cook

Servings

4 people

Rating

—

Difficulty

Hard

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I had a delicious bowl of cream of asparagus soup at a cute cafe while on a work trip in Oklahoma City several years ago. I spent a year trying to recreate my own version of this heartwarming soup. With the collaboration of my family's ideas, I have come up with a version of the soup I serve for our formal holiday meals as a starter course.

Ingredients

3 slices bacon
0.25 cups butter
3 stalks celery , chopped
1 onion , diced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups chicken broth
1 potato , peeled and diced
1 pound fresh asparagus , tips set aside and stalks chopped
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 package sliced fresh mushrooms , 8 ounce
0.75 cups half-and-half cream

Instructions

1

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain bacon on a paper towel-lined plate. Crumble bacon when cool; set aside. Reserve 1 tablespoon bacon drippings in a small bowl. Set aside the skillet.
2

Melt butter with drippings in a large saucepan over medium heat.
3

Cook and stir celery and onion in hot butter-drippings until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add potato and asparagus, reserving asparagus tips for later. Season with salt and ground black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer soup for 20 minutes.
4

Pour soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway. Holding down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get soup moving before leaving it on to purée. Purée in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and purée soup right in the cooking pot.
5

Cook and stir mushrooms and asparagus tips in the same skillet used for bacon until mushrooms release their liquid, 5 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and ground black pepper, if needed.
6

Stir mushrooms, asparagus tips, and half-and-half cream into puréed soup. Cook until thoroughly heated.
7

Portion soup into bowls and garnish with crumbled bacon.