Asparagus Soup

This is a dish that is so simple and refreshing during these hot days, and at the same time I’m taking advantage of all the wonderful spring/summer fresh produce.
Now this recipe, because of it’s simplicity, relies on the freshness and quality of the ingredients.
The fresh asparagus is truly the star of the dish, with its natural earthiness, but the seared sea scallops lend a nice sweetness to the soup. If you don’t like scallops, you could always use some large grilled shrimp or even just crumbled up bacon.
Finally we drizzle the soup with a little truffle oil, just to be posh, but olive oil works nicely too, and a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten the dish. Summer in a bowl!

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds of asparagus (chopped into 1 inch pieces)
1 cup onion (chopped)
3.5 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 TBSP butter
salt and pepper to taste
Scallops for garnish
Truffle oil for garnish
Lemon wedges

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SOUP

melt butter over medium heat in a large saucepan.
Add onions and sauté until onions just start to get some color.
Add chopped asparagus and chicken stock, simmer gently for 12-15 minutes. You want the asparagus tender, but not mushy or over cooked. You don’t want that asparagus to start going grey neither.
Carefully transfer the liquid and asparagus into a blender (my blender fit it in one go, but some people may need to do this in 2 batches, as to not over fill the blender with hot liquid)
Blend the mixture until it is smooth, making sure to stop the blender and let the steam escape a couple of times.
Pour mixture back into the saucepan, add cream, stir and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve with seared scallops (instructions below) A drizzle of truffle oil, and a squeeze of lemon.
Enjoy!!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SEARED SCALLOPS:

Dry your scallops on a paper towel, this will help get a good crust on the scallop.
Add a little oil to a nonstick pan over high heat. Season you’re scallops with salt and pepper on one side only as the pan is heating up.
Put the scallops in the nonstick pan seasoned side down. As the scallops are cooking, season the side that’s facing up.
After one minute check the scallops gently to see if they have a good golden crust on them. When they do, flip scallop and cook the other side.
Scallop should have a nice crust, but be soft and opaque in the center still.
Remove scallops from the pan, and dry them on a paper towel ready to serve.

PRODUCTS WE USE:

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