Preserved Asparagus Soup Concentrate
I use the Thermomix for this recipe, but if you don't have, one, buy Batchand make Joel and Dana's recipe. They are similar, but the process and amount made in the Thermomix is completely different.
Ingredients
Ingredients for Preserving
- 15 g or 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 200 g or 2 small onions , peeled and quartered
- 500 g or 2 potatoes , quartered
- 1.5 K or 6 cups vegetable stock , divided (750gx2)
- 1.1 k or 2 pounds asparagus , roughly chopped, divided (550gx2)
- 10 g or 2 tablespoons flat leafed parsley
- 2-3 sprigs of thyme
- salt and freshly ground black pepper , to taste
Additions When Serving, per 1 freezer bag with 3.5 cups of concentrate
- 120 g or ½ cup heavy cream
- 15 g or 1 tablespoon butter
- 10 grams or 2 teaspoons Sherry
- salt and freshly ground black pepper , to taste
- 1 ½ cups stock , to taste and thickness preference, per batch (start with ½ cup)
Instructions
Instructions for Asparagus Soup Concentrate
-
Weigh 15g oil, onion and potatoes into TM bowl; mince for 1 second on Turbo (2 times if necessary – don’t over mix like I did in the photos)
-
Sauté for 5 minutes at Varoma on speed 2R; scrape down sides of bowl with spatula and repeat for 5 more minutes; set aside
-
Do not wash TM bowl; weigh 15g oil and 550 K asparagus into TM bowl
-
Chop for 2 seconds on Turbo; weigh in remaining asparagus and fold finely chopped and coarsely chopped asparagus together in TM bowl with hand spatula
-
Sauté for 8 minutes at Varoma on speed 2.5R until slightly softened (watch through hole in lid to ensure mixture is turning; if not, use spatula through hole in lid of bowl to encourage turning motion); add asparagus mixture back to bowl of onion potato mixture with parsley and mix to combine well, with hand spatula
-
Weigh 750 to 760g of thoroughly combined mixture back into TM bowl and set remainder aside (exactly half); weigh half stock into TM bowl (750g or 3 cups)
-
Add ½ Thyme (a couple of sprigs) to simmering basket and insert; simmer for 22 minutes at 90 C on speed 2R
-
Pureé for 60 seconds on speed 10, until velvety smooth (take 5 seconds to get to speed 10)
-
Season, and place 3.5 cups concentrate into 3 labeled and dated freezer bags; you will have a scant 2 cups left for the 4th bag
-
Repeat with remaining asparagus mixture; bag in larger freezer bags once frozen
When ready to make soup:
-
Weigh first 4“Addition Ingredients”, and ½ cup or 125g of stock to one package concentrate into TM bowl (add more stock, until desired consistency and flavor, is achieved); heat at 90C for 8 minutes on speed two
-
Season to taste, thin again, if required; garnish and serve immediately
Recipe Notes
Yield:
One batch will yield 3 and ½ concentrate packages. There are 4-5 cups of soup per batch when made from the concentrate; that is two generous lunch portions, or 4-5 one cup starter portions
Garnish
- with chives and/or chive flowers or anything seasonal and pretty (for example: a center dab of yogurt topped with glistening pomegranate seeds dress it up for the holiday season)
- with Cracker Spoons (recipe here)
Dividing the Asparagus Potato Onion Mass
It is a good idea to weigh the total amount of potato, onion and asparagus mass after combining together, then dividing it by two as amounts do tend to vary, even when carefully weighing
Also delicious to use soup concentrate in rice dishes and casseroles to enhance flavour and nutritive value!