It Ain't Easy Being Green Soup!

So this week's theme is asparagus. It's delicious and nutritious!!! Yeah that's right, I said that. Honestly, I love this little stalk of a vegetable. I love it steamed, roasted, grilled, and any other way you can think of eating it. I really played around this week with my recipe and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

2 bunches of asparagus
2 15 ounce cans of white navy beans
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups of chopped broccoli
2 leeks, white and pale part only, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 14.5 cans of veggie stock
2 cups of milk
1 cup of water
2 bay leafs
2 teaspoons of white or black pepper
2 teaspoons of paprika
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil







 





 First we will start by cleaning up the asparagus. To break off the bottom just slightly bend the bottom of the stalk and let it snap where it wants to. It's pretty easy to clean up asparagus and the more you do it you'll find that you know pretty much where it's going to break. Now cut the asparagus into about one inch pieces. 

Take both tablespoons of olive oil and heat up in a decent sized pot. Once warm add in minced garlic and diced onion. We're going to satuee them for about five minutes. You don't have to worry too much about them being a certain texture since we will be cooking them longer. While the garlic and onion is sauteing boil the small amount of potatoes. You will boil these just like you would when making mashed potatoes. You want to make sure that you can get a fork through them easily before taking them off the stove. 



 


Now take the asparagus, broccoli, and leeks and add them in the pot with the onion with one cup of water. Open both cans of navy beans and drain and rinse well. Add navy beans into pot and stir well and put lid on pot. You're going to check back once every couple of minutes to mix up and to check texture. We want all the veggies to be very soft, almost over steamed.



 





Once the potatoes are done, they should finish before the veggies, drain and set aside in larger bowl. Once the veggie mixture is done you will also add this to the mixture. Mine finished once all water was out of the pot. 











Now use a blender or food processor to blend together the asparagus, beans, russet potatoes, broccoli, garlic, onion, and leaks. I personally have a small, cheap, food processor. All this means is that I would have to blend the food together about 5 times total and that my soup wouldn't be extremely smooth. I was ok with this - I like chunky soup. Your texture of your soup will depend completely on what appliance you have! 








 


With veggies being blended add back into pot that you sauteed them in. We will then add both the cans of veggie stock, milk, pepper, salt, paprika, bay leafs, and whatever else seasoning you would want. (We added a good amount of cayenne pepper. We're both sick and the extra kick will help with out plugged noses.) 

Simmer on stove for about half a hour and then serve. Mmm. We both feel in love with this! And the best thing is the left overs will easily freeze! Which is always a bonus in my book.