A little early nineties in its colour combination, but don’t hold that against it
Serves 2 (as a meal) or 4 (as a retro starter)
This started life as a recipe from Paul Merrony’s eponymous cookbook, from the time when Merrony’s at the Quay was my favourite restaurant. He suggested serving this with an oyster at the bottom of the soup bowl, but this somehow morphed into a dollop of salmon roe when we cooked it. Try it anyway you like, it is still yummy.
Ingredients
- 1 largeish leek, cleaned and thickly sliced
- 1 onion, roughly diced
- knob of butter
- slurp of olive oil
- 1 bunch asparagus, roughly chopped
- 2 largeish potatoes, peeled and roughly diced
- 500ml chicken stock
- salt and pepper
- salmon roe to serve (optional)
Methods
Heat the butter and the olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the leek and the onion and let them sweat while you prepare the other vegies.
Once the onion and the leek are soft add the potato and the asparagus and give them a quick stir to coat in the oil.
Add the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked.
Give the lot a whiz in the blender (or pass through your mouli if you are feeling more pre-industrial revolution). Reheat if you feel the need, but definitely check for seasoning at this point.
Serve garnished with a tablespoon of salmon roe. Or the accompaniment of your choice (creme fraiche, chives, etc). You can also serve this soup cool (but then cook the vegies in oil only, the butter goes rather greasy in cold soup).