Asparagus Growing
growing asparagus?
what is the ideal time to pick asp. is it before it gets long or? also what about the purple color is this better or worse than the normal green?
Cut it when its 4-10 inches tall. I hear the red is just as tasty.
Asparagus Growing
Asparagus Soup Is Good for Health
Asparagus is one of the most important indication giving signals regarding the onset of the growing season. It is the first vegetable which one finds in the spring season. Being the season indicator it may launch one into the warm weather & the rapidly increasing bounty which may last for quite a few months. One may use asparagus in a number of ways. It may be eaten just by combining it with butter or frying it in butter. Even one could prepare soup out of it. Very tasty soups are prepared using asparagus. One could use the various parts of asparagus to prepare soup out of it. It shoots or even roots can be used to prepare soup. The soup prepared out of asparagus is very healthy and should be consumed by all age group of people.
But certain things must be kept in mind while one goes to purchase asparagus. Firstly search for some asparagus look for a very firm and unwrinkled stems which are dark green in color. The asparagus should also have a little purplish tinge and should even be close headed. Towards the ends of the spear, fading should start and the asparagus should turn white. This vegetable must be stored properly. The bottom part should be broken off for storage purpose. Next they should be placed in any vessel containing water as one store the flowers.
Requirements for preparing the soup
a) Asparagus spears (fresh) – one or may be half a pound.
b)olive oil (for cooking)- one fourth cup
c)onion- one
d) shallots- two large
e)whit wine(dry)-one cup
f)vegetable stock-three cups
g)salt
h)pepper
i) sour cream
j)chives that are chopped
How to cook the asparagus soup
- Firstly one should wash the vegetable properly and then keep it to dry. The bottom part of the vegetable that is white in color is removed. That is to say it is trimmed off. Next step involves trimming off the trips also.
- Do not throw the tips of the vegetable. Keep them aside. Next chop off the green part of the vegetables into large pieces.
- Now heat a little olive oil in a very big stock pot. Olive oil is used because it is low in calories. Now dice the onions into small pieces. The pieces of onion must be really finely chopped. One must fry the onions till they turn light brown in color. The onions must be fried till it is caramelized. This is done till ten minutes.
- Now add chopped asparagus to the fried and then fry it for another three minutes. Now one should add the dry wine and then after a few minutes add vegetable stock to it. Keeps the flame from medium to high depending upon the requirement?
- After some time lower the flame of the stove and cover the pot. Keep it for around half an hour like this and let it cook. The vegetable must be soft at this point of time.
- Now allow it to cool for around ten minutes & then after that puree it in the blender. This process must be done in parts so that it becomes really very easy. Apart from this doing a process in parts makes the soup really nice and well blended.
- After blending the soup but it back into the stock pot. Now add the remaining vegetable stock to the pot. Heat the soup again and add salt and pepper according to taste.
- Now add the tips of asparagus kept aside earlier. Now cook the soup for another 5 minutes.
- Next serve the asparagus soup with little quantity of cream that is a little sour and sprinkle the chives.
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we live in southern california and have asparagus crops (3 1/2 years growing) – when do we cut the fern?
Cut them back when they begin to wilt and dry out, not before. They’re putting a lot of energy into your first real crop!
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