Asparagus... You Have No Idea

Pin It 25 pounds... 25 pounds.

When I asked my husband WHY?, he said, "I thought that is what everyone was getting." Bless that generous man. He doesn't spare any cost when it comes to me.

I can just picture it now, "25 pounds for my beautiful wife! Only the best for her."

Little did he know that I have no history with asparagus. I have grilled them once or twice, but that was the extent of my knowledge.

I didn't hear great things either about freezing or canning. So... I hopped in the car and delivered about half of my loot to friends, family, strangers I met on the road... anyone who would whittle my pile down for me. That still left me with about 15 pounds.

Here is all the asparagus knowledge I have acquired in the last few days. What is the saying? "Necessity is the mother of all learning." Very true. My 15 pounds of asparagus have brought me mountains of new knowledge and I know longer fear what my hubby may bring me home next.

Freezing Asparagus

I decided to go ahead and freeze some of the asparagus. I had so much that there was really no other options... and it was super easy.

Pots of hot water ready!

Asparagus washed and the bottoms snipped off

Then I blanched the asparagus for 1 minute. I read a ton of different information, but it looked like people blanched anywhere from 1-5 minutes. Frozen asparagus already tend to be mushy so I wanted to have it cook the least amount of time possible.

Then I put it in ice water in my sink. I dried it really good and put it in freezer bags. DONE. Very easy. If it does turn out mushy, I don't mind, because I will just use it... in my asparagus soup. That is the next on the list. Oh... my goodness... amazing.

Asparagus Soup

This is one of my new favorite soups (not my hubby's... he wouldn't even try it. We are still fighting about it). It calls for 3 pounds of asparagus. That is a lot.

I had to weigh it on my bathroom scale.

Recipe:

3 pounds of asparagus
8 cups chicken stock
4 T. butter
1 C. onion
1 T. minced garlic
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 1/2 c. Heavy cream of half and half
1/2 flour

• First break off all the tips and save them for later

• Cook onion and garlic in butter for three minutes. Add salt and pepper

• Add asparagus pieces minus the tips and stock and let it simmer until the asparagus is tender 10-15 minutes

• Remove from heat and transfer the mixture to a blender. Here is the trick. You can't put much in the blender because when you hit BLEND it doubles in size. The burn on my arm and soup on the cupboards across the room was the hard way to learn that lesson. Please air on the cautious side

The left is how much I started with. The right it what it looks like when blending.

• Then I put it all the blended soup back in the pot. I mixed the cream with about 1/4 to 1/2 c. flour. It has to be mixed together very well... NO CLUMPS. I brought that to a boil for about 1 minute and added the tips. Then I let it simmer for 5 minutes or until the soup thickened and the tips were soft.
• That is it! It was so good and I am sure very good for you with three pounds of asparagus blended up.

A jar for my Father-in-law

The Fridge

We had a ton of people over that week and we served asparagus to everyone. To keep it fresh I snipped about 1/2 inch off the bottom and stuck it in water in my fridge. It can last up to two weeks that way and still stay very fresh. I must of had about 5 pounds in there.

When our guests came I snipped off the rest of the woody stem and put the whole asparagus in a frying pan with about 4 T of butter (spare no expense on the butter), garlic salt and pepper. I cook them on low for about 5 minutes until they are slightly soft and then cover them with Parmesan cheese.

I might ASK for 25 pound next year if my husband decides to call before putting in his order. I am no longer scared.