“This fantastically simple, silky-smooth asparagus soup is a total delight. ”
Ingredients
- 800 g asparagus , woody ends removed
- olive oil
- 2 medium white onions , peeled and chopped
- 2 sticks celery , trimmed and chopped
- 2 leeks , trimmed and chopped
- 2 litres organic vegetable or chicken stock
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 10 small free-range eggs
- 8 slices ciabatta bread
- 1 knob butter
- extra virgin olive oil
Method
- 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 pour in a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, or 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, or until the tips have softened.
- Just before I’m ready to serve the soup, I get a wide casserole-type pan on the heat with 8 to 10cm of boiling water. Using really fresh eggs, I very quickly crack all 10 into the water. Don’t worry about poaching so many at the same time. They don’t have to look perfect. A couple of minutes and they’ll be done, as you want them to be a bit runny.
- Toast your ciabatta slices. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the poached eggs to a plate and add a knob of butter to them.
- 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.
Source: Jamie Oliver
