Asparagus Soup

From the Kitchen of Petra

This soup is deliciously light and simple to make.  Wow your guests with whipping this up as an appetizer, or serve with warm bread (French bread from a Pillsbury can is great here).

Ingredients

A bit better than a pound of asparagus
1 cup half-n-half
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoon butter

5-6 cups of veggie broth

Directions

1. Bring veggie broth to a boil.
2. Cut off the ends of the asparagus--about an inch off each.  (The end to cut off here is the cut, flat end.  It's usually whitish in color and firmer than the rest of the spear).
3. Cut the rest of the asparagus into inch long pieces and set aside.
4. Boil ends of asparagus.
5. Use a slatted spoon, and get the asparagus ends out of the broth and throw them away.  This boiling process helps to flavor the water, but you don't want to eat the tough ends.
6. Put the cut asparagus into the broth and let boil for about fifteen minutes.
7. Melt butter in a pot—mix in flour.  Let “sweat” until asparagus is done (this means, mix them together and warm them, but don’t let them burn).  Mix some broth into the butter/flour mix—then put all in main pot and mix.  Mix them together as smoothly as possible to avoid chunks.  A whisk can help this process.
8. Turn off heat.
9. Mix in half-n-half.
10. While stirring constantly, slowly add the egg yokes to the soup.  It helps if you've mixed the egg yokes together a bit first.
11. Serve and enjoy.

Serves 2 (main dish) or 4 (appetizer); 105 Calories per bowl; 20-30 minutes