August 8, 2012

It may not look like a pretty bowl of soup...

But in fact, it's flipping fantastic. I found this recipe at Jamie Oliver's site  and am so glad we tried it out. The combination of the fresh flavors of the asparagus and the richness of the egg, combined with the texture differences with the creamy soup, the runny egg yolk, and the crunchy toast, it was WONDERFUL.

Couple with a beautiful salad and dinner is done!!


1 lb. asparagus, woody ends removed
olive oil
2 medium white onions, peeled and chopped
2 sticks of celery, trimmed and copped
2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
2 liters good-quality chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 small very fresh free-range or organic eggs
8 slices of ciabatta bread
extra virgin olive oil

Chop the tips off your asparagus and put these to one side for later. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on the heat and add a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Season the soup bit by bit (this is important) with salt and pepper until just right. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened. ** MY NOTE ** I did not stir in the tips - I  don't like a primarily smooth soup with some bits of things in it, it's all chunky or all smooth for me!

**MY NOTES ** Just before you're ready to serve the soup, make poached eggs and leave the yolk runny. Also use this time to toast up some fresh bread - we rubbed our fresh bread with some garlic cloves to get the flavor on it when it came out of the toaster. To serve, divide the soup between eight warmed bowls and place a piece of toast into each. Put a poached egg on top, cut into it to make it runny, season and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

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