Crème d'asperge / Cream of Asparagus

Avi was quite persistent that I make this creamy delectable soup. I acquiesced to his request thinking it will be quite a warm treat this winter. I remembered to pick up a bunch of asparagus from walmart. I opened the 52nd page of The complete cookbook:Vegetarian-tasty recipes for everyday by Helen Aitken and started to read. I found the recipe pretty simple and soon found out it turns out yummy too! I did tweak the recipe a tad to suit my palate.

Ingredients:-
6-7 asparagus spears
1/4 cup of butter
1 shallot chopped
2 pods of garlic
1 cup of vegetable stock
4-5 basil leaves
1/2 cup cream (I used 1/4th of a cup being diet conscious- with 1/2 cup or more the soup is more creamier and is yellow in color)
salt and white pepper to taste

** if you use less of cream, you may use 1/4 cup of cold milk and 1.5 tsp of cornstarch to thicken the soup too.

To Garnish:-
little parsley leaves or trims of asparagus.

Method:-

Break the woody ends from the asparagus. You may throw this away. Trim the tips. you may use the tips for garnishing. This is optional though. I used parsley instead.

Melt butter in a pan. Add the garlic and onions. Fry till transparent.

Add the vegetable stock, asparagus and basil. Simmer with a lid for 20 mins till the asparagus is tender.

Fish out the asparagus and process in a food processor

Sieve the asparagus into the pan (only the juice to go inside the pan with veggie stock).

Keep the flame at medium.Add the cream and asparagus tips. Cook for 5 mins but do not let the soup come to a boil.

Add salt and white pepper and serve hot.