Asparagus and Tarragon Velouté (Dairy-Free Creamy Asparagus Soup) Recipe

Why It Works

Fennel reinforces the anise-like style of tarragon.
A flour-thickened velouté delivers brighter vegetable style than a cream-based soup.
You must make the most of vegetable stock somewhat than hen stock, nevertheless be sure it’s do-it-yourself.

Don’t get me incorrect: I’ve acquired nothing in opposition to cream soups. Cream of mushroom. Cream of spinach. Cream of hen. I actually like all of them once in a while. Nevertheless the issue about cream soups is that dairy fat has a way of coating the tongue and dulling vegetable flavors. A cream of asparagus soup could type like rich, creamy asparagus, nevertheless you’d in no way describe it as vivid. If you need a really vivid however creamy vegetable soup, it’s important to get rid of that dairy fat.

Extreme Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

So how do you make a super-creamy soup with no cream the least bit? There are a number of strategies to get there. Usually I’ll use bread to thicken my soups, as on this 15-minute tomato soup. The alternative methodology is using a fundamental French preparation generally known as velouté. The phrase comes from the equivalent root as velourand, much like a neon velour tracksuit, velouté is {{smooth}}, suave…let’s merely associate with velvety and vivid.

Making a Velouté

In classical French delicacies, velouté is technically a sauce made by thickening stock with a butter- and flour-based roux. Assume béchamel with stock in its place of milk. Currently, whenever you see the phrase on a menu, it’s more often than not referring to a velvety, satiny soup with comparatively little to no dairy fat.

I start my asparagus/tarragon mannequin by sautéing aromatics in olive oil. For sweet asparagus, I need the mild style of spring leeks to onions. Celery or garlic may very well be widespread choices proper right here as correctly, nevertheless I decided to utilize a thinly sliced bulb of fennel with a objective to bolster the anise style of the tarragon.

I sauté the greens with a pinch of salt with a objective to help draw out moisture, then, as quickly as they’re completely softened, I add a pair tablespoons of flour, stirring it until it’s blended with the oil throughout the pot. Subsequent, I pour in numerous cups of hen stock. You probably can moreover use vegetable stock, nevertheless be sure to utilize a do-it-yourself one; store-bought vegetable stock is sort of universally horrible.

Extreme Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

As quickly as all of it entails a simmer, I add some chopped asparagus and a handful of minced modern tarragon leaves. I tried making a mannequin of the soup whereby I sautéed the asparagus sooner than together with the stock, nevertheless I found that it didn’t really provide a style profit, and resulted in a soup with duller coloration.

To make points extra fancy, I wish to tug out numerous asparagus concepts after solely a minute of simmering, after they’re nonetheless vivid inexperienced and crisp. They make a terrific garnish for the finished soup. I proceed simmering the rest of the asparagus until it’s tender, just a few minutes longer, then hit it with a squeeze of latest lemon juice to brighten it up.

Ending the Soup

If you need it fully velvety-smooth, you could swap the soup to a extremely efficient countertop blender and let ‘er rip, passing it by a fine-mesh strainer afterward. If a still-pretty-smooth-but-a-little-more-rustic purée is okay by you, then an excellent handheld immersion blender will do the trick, with the additional benefit you possibly can purée the soup correct throughout the pot. (Merely be careful of splash-back. I coated my counter and shirt in inexperienced slime, Double Dare–mannequin, not lower than as quickly as whereas creating this recipe!)

Like modern asparagus itself, this soup is a sort of which could be most interesting eaten correct after they’re made. It cooks so shortly that the purée must nonetheless have a vivid inexperienced coloration. It will nonetheless type unbelievable whenever you chill it and serve it the following day, however it’s going to uninteresting to a colorless yellowish inexperienced by the purpose you have acquired reheated it.

I want to garnish my soup with further chopped tarragon, numerous the wispy fronds from the very best of the fennel, the asparagus concepts, a drizzle of olive oil, and solely a contact of crème fraîche.

Extreme Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Okay, so I assume crème fraîche is technically dairy fat. Sue me.

April 2017