I’m so excited to be participating in my first Virtual Vegan Potluck today! Welcome to Soup and Such fellow potluckers! Pull up a chair and let me get you a bowl of soup.
I wanted to try something new for the potluck, keeping it seasonal and simple. I settled on this creamy asparagus and leek soup, thickened with some white beans and flavored very simply with salt, pepper, and a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice. It is super easy to make, 100% vegan as is, and most importantly, delicious!
The inspiration for this soup comes from Deborah Madison’s recipe for asparagus soup in her excellent Vegetable Soups. That cookbook is one of my favorites because her flavor combinations are always so good. Having said that, however, I did play around with the ingredients to simplify things a bit. I used leek instead of green onions and white beans instead of potato as a thickener. I just love leeks in pureed soups, so I couldn’t help myself. I took a chance with the white beans, but they worked really well here.
This soup would make a lovely starter for a special meal, but I ended up eating two bowls as an early lunch right after I made it. It was so good! Also, I didn’t have any on hand, but I think homemade croutons would make an excellent topper for this soup. I’ll do that next time.
Happy springtime cooking, everyone! ~Inge
p.s. If you’d like, you can subscribe to Soup and Such and receive an email every time a new post is available. I usually post about once a week. Everything I make is vegetarian and some things are vegan. Subscribe by clicking on the “follow” button at the top right!
To visit Eat.Breathe.Balance (the blog that precedes mine in the potlick), click here!
To visit House Vegan (the blog that follows mine in the potluck), click here!
To start at the very beginning of the potluck, click here!
Asparagus and leek soup
Inspired by Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Soups
An important tip: don’t leave out the fresh lemon juice at the end because it really brightens everything up. I even squeezed more lemon juice into my individual bowl of soup. If you’re thinking about adding a fresh herb, that is a good idea! Perhaps some chopped tarragon or basil stirred in at the end? You can also go the extra mile and make homemade croutons as a soup topper.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch of asparagus (about 5 cups chopped)
1 leek (about 2 cups sliced)
4 – 5 cups of veggie stock
1 cup canned white beans, drained and rinsed
Salt + pepper, to taste
Fresh lemon juice
Method:
1. Heat the olive oil in your favorite soup pot over medium heat. Add the asparagus and sauté for about 5 minutes. Then, add the sliced leek and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, if desired.
2. Pour in the veggie stock. You’ll probably use between 4 and 5 cups of stock. Use less stock if you like a thicker soup, more if you like a thinner soup. Once you add the stock, bring the soup to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes, until the veggies are soft. Add the white beans and turn off the heat.
3. Puree the soup. I used my trusty immersion blender, but you could also do it in batches in a regular blender.
4. Put the pureed soup back on the stove, keeping warm, and stir in the juice from half of a lemon. Taste the soup and decide if you want more lemon, salt, and/or pepper. Enjoy!
May 21, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Looks delicious! You can’t go wrong with leek and asparagus in soup!
May 21, 2013 at 5:40 pm
Agreed! 🙂
May 21, 2013 at 11:10 am
Hello 🙂 Yum, this looks like a perfect spring soup! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hope you find many recipes to keep you happy and healthy. Cheers
May 21, 2013 at 11:20 am
Hello and thanks!
May 20, 2013 at 6:24 pm
I made this and it was delish. I had to proportion it down because of how much of the ingredients I had. Just wondering, did you take off the hard stalk of the asparagus (not sure what the term for that is–I’m sure there is one!!)? Because it wasn’t mentioned above I wasn’t sure, and I did it, and ended up with quite a bit less than 5 cups of asparagus.
May 20, 2013 at 7:32 pm
Hi Margaret! So happy you made it and liked it! Yay! Yes, I removed the hard part of the stalks – I forgot to mention that in the recipe write-up. I guess the bunch I bought was giant-sized, because even after doing that, I still had about 5 cups of chopped asparagus. But it’s so easy to scale with soups, so once you chop up the asparagus and see what you’ve got you can adjust the other amounts, like you did!
May 18, 2013 at 2:18 pm
Leeks and asparagus- you can’t go wrong. I bet this was delicious! I would definitely eat this at a potluck. You got my vote!
May 18, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Thanks so much!!
May 17, 2013 at 12:06 pm
The flavours must be amazing! The colours are really great. A soup like this will definitely put a smile on my face. Thank you for the great recipe. Oh and, welcome to the VVP, glad you joined with this lovely recipe 🙂
May 17, 2013 at 12:33 pm
It was really good! Thanks!
May 15, 2013 at 11:48 pm
Asparagus and leek- always a winning combination!
May 17, 2013 at 12:33 pm
I agree! 🙂
May 13, 2013 at 11:32 am
It looks so creamy, yum!
May 17, 2013 at 12:34 pm
It’s very creamy and delicious!
May 13, 2013 at 8:56 am
I love leeks too, and I think they’re a fantastic soup ingredient. It’s just coming into asparagus time here, this would be a great soup to try, thanks for the inspiration.
May 17, 2013 at 12:34 pm
I hope you try it!
May 12, 2013 at 6:11 pm
This soup is right up my alley. Simple but divine. I love the addition of white beans. Great idea! I love the way the color turned out, too.
May 12, 2013 at 6:38 pm
Perfect way to describe it – simple yet divine!
May 12, 2013 at 11:17 am
Asparagus is one of my all time favorite veggies!! This soup sounds delishhh.
May 12, 2013 at 11:39 am
It is so good!
May 12, 2013 at 11:06 am
Delicious indeed! I love that you used beans to make it creamy and to thicken it! Yummy!
May 12, 2013 at 11:39 am
Yeah, the beans worked out perfectly!
May 11, 2013 at 10:39 pm
Yay, I love Deborah Madison recipes! 🙂 This soup sounds divine. I love the flavor of leeks (but my fiancee will ONLY eat them pureed because she hates the texture otherwise), and pureed asparagus soup makes me nostalgic for Spain because my host mother used to make that for me. Combining those two into a soup– along with white beans– is genius!
May 12, 2013 at 8:10 am
Leeks in soup are so good. Deborah Madison’s cookbooks are a staple reference around here!
May 11, 2013 at 10:18 pm
Thank you for making my favorite soup 😉 XXX
May 12, 2013 at 8:07 am
You’re welcome!
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May 11, 2013 at 5:25 pm
Asparagus! Loveeee! This looks so goood! Happy VVP!
– alexis
http://www.sugarcoatedvegan.com
May 12, 2013 at 8:07 am
Thanks!
May 12, 2013 at 12:18 pm
You’re welcome! 🙂
May 11, 2013 at 1:30 pm
oooeeee I love this combination of asparagus and leek but I’ve never tried it with soup, sounds delish!! xox
May 11, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Yeah, give it a try, it is awesome!
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May 11, 2013 at 11:34 am
Perfect springtime dish – when you want something warm still, but also bright and fresh. Thank you for participating in the Potluck!
PS can you please update your Back link to: http://www.eatbreathebalance.com/2013/05/11/virtual-vegan-potluck/ Curly Adventurer was a no-show. Thanks!
May 11, 2013 at 11:44 am
Oh sure, I think that is my current Back link!
May 11, 2013 at 11:23 am
A lovely soup this is & so seasonal too!
A great 1st entry for the VVP! Well done! MMMMMMMMMMM! I loved doing it too!
May 11, 2013 at 11:25 am
Thank you so much!
May 11, 2013 at 11:04 am
This sounds really good. Will definitely be giving it a try!!
May 11, 2013 at 1:32 pm
Oh, great! Let me know how it goes!
May 11, 2013 at 9:38 am
That first image of the soup with the lemons couldn’t look more spring time if it tried! I love asparagus soup and yours looks fantastic!
May 11, 2013 at 10:10 am
Thanks! I had actually never made a creamy asparagus soup before this one, so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out. I’m glad I took a chance, though, because it was so good! I love that the VVP pushed me to try something new!
May 11, 2013 at 6:47 am
Yummy!
May 11, 2013 at 1:33 pm
Thanks!
May 11, 2013 at 6:14 am
Sounds delicious! I will have to try it sometime soon, especially since it’s asparagus season and I love asparagus.
May 11, 2013 at 9:20 am
It’s the perfect soup for this time of year! Let me know if you try it!
May 11, 2013 at 2:30 am
Thats a lovely pot of soup inna lovely pot! What more could you want??
May 11, 2013 at 9:19 am
Why, thank you! 🙂 It is my favorite soup pot and one of my new favorite soups!