Roasted Asparagus Soup

I had a huge bunch of asparagus (1.75 lbs) that I needed to use. I've also been saving the woody ends that you don't normally eat. I figured I could use them to make stock or a pureed soup even though they weren't going to be tasty by themselves.  Tonight I decided to go ahead and use them and make a big bowl of soup so we had a reasonably healthy dinner.

The soup took about 45 minutes start to finish.  It wasn't bad since I wasn't in the kitchen for a lot of it. This had a very asparagus-y flavor.  It looked like pea soup (not that you'd know that from the picture... it's much greener than it looks in the picture.  My camera just couldn't pick up the color in this soup for some reason).

This soup had a nice rich texture without using a ton of cream.  And at least we got a lot of veggies!  I'll probably mix this up next time and might forgo the asparagus pieces and just make a pureed soup.  But given how easy this was and how much Jeremy loves asparagus, I'll certainly be making variations of this again.

This soup uses rice to thicken it a bit... but it's not a lot of rice and you can't taste it in the soup.  You can certainly omit the rice but it will be a bit thinner.  Or you can thin the soup out by using extra stock or milk.  If you want a vegetarian version, just use water or vegetable stock.  We ate this with some fresh bread that Jeremy baked.  Yum!

Recipe:
2.75 lbs of asparagus (give or take) - I had 1.75 lbs of fresh asparagus and 1 lb of frozen asparagus stems
1 large onion, chopped
2 c. chicken stock
1/3 c. rice
1/4 c. skim milk
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut or break the woody stems off of the asparagus.  Slice the tops of the asparagus into 1/2" pieces.
2. Heat a large pot over medium heat.  Add 2 tbs. olive oil.  Add onion and saute until softened, 4-5 minutes.
3. Add all of the woody asparagus ends, chicken stock, and rice.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to maintain a simmer until the rice is cooked (approx. 15 minutes).
4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place the sliced asparagus on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Mix to combine.  Roast for 10-12 minutes until just tender.
5. When the rice is cooked in the soup, turn off the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Puree the soup in batches in a blender. (You can add the milk in this step while you puree or just stir it into the soup in the next step.)
6. Return soup to the pot.  Add roasted asparagus and parmesan (and milk if you didn't add it while blending).  Adjust seasonings as necessary.