Doesn't this look divine? Homemade cream of asparagus soup,
made with the ends of our Easter asparagus.
I sliced the pieces lengthwise and simmered them in water until soft.
Next I pureed them in the pitcher blender, added milk, onion powder, dried thyme, black pepper and salt. I thickened the soup with a slurry of flour and water. At the very end I swirled in 2 tablespoons of butter.
Don't you think this would be wonderful? Looks can be deceiving, however. I call this "cream of dental floss soup." The entire batch has short little bits of floss-like fibers throughout. My family thinks it tastes wonderful, but agrees the texture is off-putting.
But I'm not giving up yet. If it has "texture" perhaps I just need to lose that texture amongst other textures. My thought is to use this soup as a binder in a rice and chicken based casserole, one that also has some diced celery and perhaps some diced red pepper. I'll use brown rice, which adds more texture than white rice. And I'll give it a cheese and crumb topping.
It isn't so much that I don't want to throw away costly food, as the asparagus ends were something most people discard anyway. And the rest of the ingredients were budget-wise too. It's the time and effort that I put into making the soup that I can't seem to just let go of. And that is what's driving me to use a soup that we simply didn't enjoy.
Have you ever cooked a dish that you didn't care for, then remade it into something else, hoping it would be better enjoyed in a new rendition?
In any case, I try to use every last bit of food in our house. And I'll try to use this highly textured soup in one way or another.
YES, Lili! The best bread pudding I think I ever made was my way of salvaging a cake (gluten-free, I think) that basically exploded (fell apart). Our sons and I joked at the time that I ought to make that terrible cake again, on purpose, as the essential ingredient for the delicious bread (cake) pudding. LOL I've done it with other things, too. I really hate to throw anything out that isn't actually unhealthy; so when something is less-than-stellar, I DO try to figure some way to salvage it. Make crumbs or croutons out of the unburned part of burned baked goods. Doctor-up bad-texture beans so the flavor is at least sensational. Chop leftover roast or vegetables and fry as hash. That's definitely a strategy in our household as well. And thanks for the laugh we got here over "Cream of Dental Floss Soup". Brilliant! Sara
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