A perfect way to kickstart soup season and give your family a warm hug.
As a chef, and recipe developer I find creating soups to be more on the challenging side of recipe development. Creating soups is all about taking humble vegetables and transforming them into a hearty, and comforting dish that is packed with flavor, and love! I thought about what makes a great fall soup? I loved the idea of taking earthy asparagus, and pairing it with sweet peas to get the perfect balance of earthiness and sweetness – you can call it a chef’s kiss 😉
I’m sharing this recipe with you just in time for Sukkos which means people will be relying on you to take their sitting-in-the -sukkah-chills away with a piping hot, hearty, and flavorful soup – with this soup you hit the jackpot! You’ll have everyone coming back for more until they wipe the pot clean.
It’s easy to get these gorgeous results simply by topping your bowls with peas and microgreens (and a drizzle of olive oil and sea salt to finish).
And, yes, of course, this freezes really well!
Asparagus and Sweet Pea Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large Vidalia onions, sliced
- 4 large garlic cloves, cut in half
- 3 cups chopped celery (about 1 large bunch of celery)
- 3 cups frozen peas
- 2 lbs fresh or frozen asparagus, edges trimmed and roughly chopped
- 2 large russet potatoes, roughly diced
- 32 oz container of Imagine no chicken broth
- 4 – 5 ½ cups hot water, depending on consistency preference
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp kosher salt, divided
- 1 tsp freshly cracked pepper, or more to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add sliced onions and garlic to the hot frying pan. Sprinkle about ½ tablespoon salt across the top of the onions. Allow onions to cook until they are soft and translucent in the center and brown around the edges, about 15 -20 minutes, mixing every so often (avoid mixing excessively or onions won't brown- they will sweat). When the onions are ready, lower the heat down to medium and add the chopped celery. Allow the mixture to continue cooking so the celery sweats down and softens, about 10-15 minutes.
- Transfer sautéed mixture to a large pot. Add frozen peas, chopped asparagus, and potatoes. Turn the heat under the pot on to medium-high heat. Add no-chicken broth and water. Add 1 ½ tablespoons of kosher salt, pepper, and soy sauce. Cover the pot and allow the soup to come to a boil. Once the soup comes to a boil, lower the fire to medium and allow the soup to cook for about 25 minutes or until the vegetables are fork tender (don’t overcook the soup or the vegetables will lose their green vibrancy).
- Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool slightly. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast over the top of the soup. Using either the help of a stick blender or a Vitamix (you will get a much smoother consistency) puree the soup until it's velvety smooth. Taste the soup and adjust seasoning if necessary.
- To serve, plate soup into individual bowls, garnish with a small handful of rainbow micro greens and thawed frozen peas. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and finish off with some freshly cracked pepper.
Notes
Looks delish
Recipe sounds yum, BUT! To my knowledge, asparagus is considered a vegetable very likely to be infested with bugs and must therefore be cleaned and prepared properly if you want to eat it. The tips are never permitted, cut them off, the stems should be peeled so you get rid of all those v shaped tips that could potentially have bugs hiding under them. White asparagus, on the other hand, are considered perfectly acceptable as is. Again, like always, you should check with your own LOR.
What is nutritional yeast?
Can I skip it?
You can skip it! I just love the extra umami flavor it adds! The company braggs makes a kosher one, you can find in most large kosher supermarket.
What brand nutritional yeast is good?
What can be used to substitute the broth? It’s almost $30 on amazon
It’s for a pack of 6
Trader Joe’s sells really good vegetable broth that can probably be swapped for this one. They also sell nutritional yeast