creamy asparagus soup with a poached egg on toast

servings
Serves 8

method

A fantastically simple asparagus soup, pureéd till it’s silky smooth, is always a winner. Delicious eaten hot (or cold on really hot days with the help of a little lemon juice). The poached egg on toast makes it for me, but of course you don’t have to serve the soup with them. I usually poach a couple more eggs than I need in case of breakages in the pan! I’ve made this for eight, but feel free to halve quantities or freeze soup leftovers.

Chop the tips off your asparagus and put these to one side for later. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on the heat and add a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Season the soup bit by bit (this is important) with salt and pepper until just right. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened.

Just before I’m ready to serve the soup, I get a wide casserole-type pan on the heat with 8 to 10cm of boiling water. Using really fresh eggs, I very quickly crack all 10 into the water. Don’t worry about poaching so many at the same time. They don’t have to look perfect. A couple of minutes and they’ll be done, as you want them to be a bit runny. Toast your ciabatta slices. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the poached eggs to a plate and add a knob of butter to them. To serve, divide the soup between eight warmed bowls and place a piece of toast into each. Put a poached egg on top, cut into it to make it runny, season and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

• from Jamie at Home

ingredients

• 800g asparagus, woody ends removed
• olive oil
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and copped
• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
• 2 liters good-quality chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 small very fresh free-range or organic eggs
• 8 slices of ciabatta bread
• a knob of butter
• extra virgin olive oil

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1. by Stephcosmos on Wed 09 Nov 2011 @ 01:10

Jamie, this is fantastic! Of course, being Latina, I added lime juice, some cayenne, and a packet of Sazon Goya to suit my palate, but your recipe is absolutely wonderful and will become a go-to for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

2. by Nora og Vanessa (fiolin-duo) on Tue 09 Jun 2009 @ 15:50

Vi elsker suppen din, lager den nå! gleder oss til å spise!!! yay:)

3. by Lynda Finn on Wed 03 Jun 2009 @ 11:30

Jamie has devised some wonderful recipes but I wish he'd remember that some of us loathe oil, yes, even his blessed olive oil and that for us it ruins anything it's added to

4. by Ona on Sun 10 May 2009 @ 20:53

This was a terrific soup! I made it today for the first course of a Mother's Day lunch, and served it cold (it's a beautiful sunny May day!) with a white bean-lemon-rosemary crostini. Delish! Thanks.

5. by Christine on Mon 27 Apr 2009 @ 20:10

This was fantastic! I added truffle oil at the finish and added the prosciutto wrapped asparagus...quite yummie. Was terrific cold the next day -

6. by Tim on Mon 13 Apr 2009 @ 14:36

This is the first recipe we tried from your latest cookbook. Made it over the weekend and it turned out delicious!

7. by Tristan Cockerill on Mon 06 Apr 2009 @ 11:43

I made this for my Mum on Mothers day. She really liked it and I made it again two days ago. It is an easy recipe very simple an I'm 13 years old. The recipes on this site are amazing and great fun to make although there is quite a lot of washing up.

8. by vicky on Thu 12 Feb 2009 @ 11:49

Can i just say this soup is totally lush!! ive made it quite a few times for various members of my family and they all loved it. have it with or without the poached egg but believe me it s worth doing.

9. by sue on Sat 31 Jan 2009 @ 19:23

hi love all your reciepes but could you send me a good one for a good thick gravy and a red wine sauce thanks

10. by teresa on Mon 26 Jan 2009 @ 16:46

What a cool way to have soup. Will take advantage of a non hot summer evening and will make this soup tonight. My kids will love the visual ! Thanks !!

11. by ieva on Mon 12 Jan 2009 @ 21:54

My favorite Chef :)

12. by annalisa on Sat 06 Dec 2008 @ 11:51

i think you really are a special one in the kitchen. i love to watch you on tv. you gave me plenty of new ideas, and when i have guests they're all happy with the food and nevere leave something uneaten. thank you for beeing there. greetings from italy.

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