White asparagus soup

White asparagus is something that I am not really sure if I have ever had before, but during my week in England I think I had more than most people have in a life time.  A friend was visiting from Belgium, who lived next door to a white asparagus farm and sent a case of white asaparagus.  Some of it was young and tender and some of it was old and woody. The only thing to do with old woody asparagus, white or green, is make soup.

Asparagus soup served in a cabbage!

All I did was saute some onion in a little olive oil until transparent and then added peeled chopped white asparagus.

I cooked this for about 10 minutes on low stirring occasionally until the asparagus was starting to soften.  Then added enough chicken stock to cover and a little chopped parsley.

Asparagus and pine nut salad

This salad was made by my friend from England Jacky, she had it a friend of hers' over there and thought it would go well with our Italian dinner.  And she was right it was the hit of the night.

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of her making it as she did not take any and I was otherwise engaged. But anyway here goes.

1 bunch of Asparagus
3/4  cup of pine nuts (she said that she thoughts walnuts or pecans would work as well)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Container of baby arugula
Juice of one lemon.

Roasted Asparagus

It is asparagus time of year, and I do think that we should eat more seasonally, in the past spring was the only time you could get asparagus and late spring/early summer was the only time you could get strawberries. Having said that I am as bad as the next person for buying food when I want it rather than when it is in season.  But I am going to try to do better, and as it is asparagus season Nancy and I had roasted asparagus with our steaks.

Hardly a recipe really just a method of cooking.  Roasting asparagus like roasting most vegetables intensifies their flavour and really is my preferred way to cook them.  With asparagus you want to make sure not to over cook them unlike other vegetables that are roasted these are really better if sill bright green and still with a little bite to them.