Pea Vine, Green Garlic, and Asparagus Soup

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www.WeeklyVeganMenu.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil or water

1/2 onion, diced

1 bunch green garlic, diced, reserving 1 bulb for toast (or 2 garlic, minced)

1 bunch asparagus, chopped. reserving tips for garnish

8 c water

1 bunch pea vine (1 lb) (OR spinach with 1/2 cup of peas, thawed)

sea salt, pepper

Heat a soup pot, add water (or oil), onions, green garlic, stir, cover, cook a few minutes until tender.

Add asparagus and water. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and cook until asparagus is just tender. If you overcook asparagus it becomes stringy. Get another pot ready, a medium one works well. Remove asparagus to a blender, blend using a little water if needed. USE CAUTION. Hot liquid will blow the top off a blender. Use a hand towel over the cracked top and hold on. Using more liquid will cause more pressure, so use as little liquid as you can. Blend well.Taste. If the texture is fine to you, pour asparagus into clean pot. If not, strain the asparagus through a mesh strainer, using the back of a ladle to push as much liquid out of the asparagus as possible. Alternately, if you have a milk bag, use that once the asparagus is cool enough to squeeze.

Put pea vine (or spinach/peas) into simmering liquid. Pea vine is a huge bunch, so use tongs to move the pea (or spinach) around until just wilted. Remove greens to a blender, straining the liquid as well, if necessary and blend well. See above blending instructions. Pea Vine is fibrous (I’m not sure if cooking it to death would change this, breaking down the cells of the stem, but it would come out as dark as a can of collard greens. I wanted to keep it vibrant green.) I like it, but hubby didn’t. Again, decide if you want to strain it. Follow the straining instructions above. Strain the remaining liquid into the clean pot.

Return the asparagus, liquid, and pea vine to a simmer just to heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you’d like a thicker soup, add a slurry of cornstarch or arrowroot (2 T of either to 4 T cold water, mix well). If using arrowroot, remember that once you boil it it is no longer effective. Keep it to a below simmer until thickened.

Serve with thin slices of toasted bread, rubbed with the green garlic bulb and a little sea salt. If using regular garlic, realize that raw garlic is very pungent. Very healthy, but strong.