Sparglecremesuppe

A while ago, I was encouraged by some facebook friends to take advantage of the fresh spargel (asparagus) that's in season and make a German traditional meal--spargelcremesuppe. (My recipe printed it all one word, so I will do the same.) I decided to take them up on the challenge.


The girls and I stopped at one of the many spargel gazebos that have popped up all over the place. We also got some strawberries because that's what they sell at the spargel gazebos--spargel und erdbeeren (asparagus and strawberries). The lady spoke no English, but seemed to realize my attempt to say "halb, bitte" (half, please) meant I wanted half a kilogram. Success! The kids were excited (and so was I) to get started.

Here we are, spargel and recipe at the ready.




Chop off the ends and peel the spargel, then boil the scraps for 20 min. This forms the base of the suppe. (By the way, suppe is pronounced "zoo-puh") At least, that's how I say it. :)





Then you chop up the spargel into equal pieces and add it to the base, after you toss the scraps. Again, boil for 20 min.





Here's the kitchen as I work. See that bag of pasta in the corner? That's the other part of our dinner! (more to come)

Add the rest of the ingredients and boil for (any guesses?) 20 min. There is a little pepper, salt, heavy cream, and a bit of lemon juice in the suppe. It smells awesome! Viola! (Oops...I mean da ist es!) Ladle in bowl and serve.

Alas, I don't have a finished product picture, but let me assure you it was delicious! Very smooth, creamy, and subtle in flavor. My vegetable-ly challenged family didn't care too much for it, but did a good job trying it. Since I was attempting to make a traditional German meal, I went a little crazy and bought huhn (chicken) from the geflugel man (poultry man) who sells his roasted chickens from a truck in the parking lot of our town's grocery store. (He took pity on me and spoke English. That was nice.) I added the chicken to another German tradition--spaetzle. (That's the pasta-looking bag in the kitchen picture.) Just boil the noodles, add some cheese and chicken and bake in the oven for about (Yes!) 20 min. Tasty!!

Thanks again to all who encouraged me to try this. As the transition to living here has been hard, it's wonderful to have success at something! I enjoyed figuring it out (oh, I didn't mention my recipe was in metic so I had to convert the whole thing...that took a while!) and serving it to my family. Hopefully there'll be more to come...Schwarzwalder kirschetorte anyone?