With a pound of asparagus hanging out in my fridge, I wanted to find something delicious to make so for this week's Food Revolution Friday, I tried this great recipe from Jamie Oliver's website. It's very easy and delicious-at first the idea of a poached egg on toast with the soup seemed a little weird, but the creamy egg mixed with the soup, and the crunchy toast, topped with salty prosciutto (my idea) was just the thing this evening. We loved it!
Adapted from Jamie Oliver
800g asparagus
2 medium white onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 leeks, washed well and chopped
2 liters of vegetable or chicken stock
ciabatta bread
8 eggs
125 g prosciutto
butter
Snap off the woody ends on your asparagus and throw them away. Next, trim the tops of your asparagus and put them aside. Take the stalks and chop them into 1 inch long pieces. Set aside.
Slice up the leeks, then wash them thoroughly because they sometimes get gritty dirt between the layers. Set aside.
In a stock pot, heat up a little olive oil and fry up the onions, celery and leeks until they are soft but not browned, about 10 minutes. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and the broth. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer with a lid on for about 20 minutes.
When the 20 minutes is up, use an immersion blender to blend up your soup so it's nice and smooth. Season carefully with salt and pepper. Then gently bring the heat back up and add the asparagus tops, stirring and letting gently bubble until they are tender crisp. Remove from the heat.
Fry up some bits of prosciutto until crispy and sprinkle over the soup if you wish.
Poach 1 egg per person, and serve with buttered, toasted bread and the poached eggs. It's best in a shallow bowl-my bowls are deep and so the egg practically slid right into the soup.
Serves 8
