King of Spears

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“Asparagus Time” is one of the most popular seasons around here and demands three classic dishes: cooked asparagus, a sauce to accompany that specialty, and last but not least, asparagus soup. This recipe covers two of the three (With Ingredient Special on Asparagus, Rcp# 68).

Ingredients for ‘King of Spears’ (Sauce and Soup)

Part A

  • 10 precooked, crumbled chestnuts, free of hard residue
  • ½ a ripe avocado, washed, peeled (can be frozen and thawed)
  • ½ teaspoon of grated lime peel (from an organic lime that has been washed and dried before grating)
  • One handful (50-60) of large plain parsley leaves (washed and dried slightly with a cloth)
  • 1 ½ to 2 artichoke hearts (precooked and preserved in liquid, not oil; quartered and cut into bite-sized pieces)
  • 200 ml of cold, strong asparagus cooking stock

Part B

  • 300 ml asparagus cooking stock
  • 35 – 40 g white chocolate (9 -10 pieces from a 100 g bar; use 1 – 2 pieces more if it’s plant-based)
  • 1 tablespoon mild olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • Freshly ground pepper and nutmeg

Part C

  • ¼ teaspoon of bear’s garlic in oil
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of fresh lime juice
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of chopped basil (prewashed and dried with a cloth)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons of chopped, plain parsley (prewashed and dried with a cloth)

Additionally for the soup:

  • 100-150 g of leftover cooked asparagus cut into small pieces.
  • 500 ml strong asparagus cooking stock
  • 2 tablespoons oat yogurt

Cooking Instructions for ‘King of Spears’

For the Sauce:

  1. Blend the ingredients from Part A in a high-powered blender until smooth.
  2. Heat the 300 ml of asparagus cooking stock from Part B to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Stir in the blended ingredients from Part A, and add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Briefly reheat to allow the sauce to thicken slightly, then remove from heat.
  3. Let it cool for two to three minutes, then add one tablespoon of olive oil and the chocolate pieces.
  4. Stir gently until the chocolate has melted completely.
  5. Add the bear’s garlic in oil, lime juice, chopped basil and chopped parsley. Transfer to a sauce boat and serve.

You can make the sauce ahead of time and reheat it carefully. It can be refrigerated for one to two days. Do not boil it, or it will disintegrate. You can also use any leftover sauce to make soup. Take the sauce you have and add three-quarters of its volume in asparagus cooking stock, along with a few pieces of leftover cooked asparagus (see the recipe below).

For the Soup:

  1. Prepare the sauce as described above.
  2. Heat 500 ml of asparagus cooking stock and bring it to a boil briefly. Then, turn off the heat. Gently stir in the sauce, then add the precooked asparagus. Finally, stir in the oat yogurt.
  3. Serve with bread.

This makes 2–3 servings as a lunch soup or 4 – 5 servings as a starter soup.

Side Notes:

  • I came up with this recipe using leftover ingredients in the tiny kitchen of a vacation rental. 😉
  • In case you’re wondering about the odd position of this post, since the recipe is usually published with the special ingredient it’s attributed to, I’ll explain. Well, as it so happens, I twisted my back, so the testing series was interrupted. Don’t worry; I’m much better now. If you’re interested in the background story, you can read about it in the Side Notes section of my post “Alongside” next Friday.

Please note: For all my recipes (text) on this blog (By MagS, Parsley-Lane Blog) I grant a CC license under the terms of BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further explanations, please see the Legal Notice or visit creativecommons.org.