My asparagus soup is unbelievably smooth and creamy, yet it’s made without a drop of cream. Instead, we blend together asparagus, potatoes, and an easy homemade broth that’s light and fragrant. It’s healthy, satisfying, and naturally vegetarian!
This asparagus soup recipe screams Spring and is one of my favorite asparagus recipes! It’s light on calories but has the most delicious, bright, fresh flavor. While I adore rich, cream-based soups, sometimes I crave something a bit lighter. That’s where this recipe shines. By using potatoes instead of cream, we achieve that same silky texture without the extra calories. I use the same trick in our creamy vegetable soup and broccoli cheddar soup!
What’s even more impressive is that this soup is incredibly resourceful! We use the often-discarded parts of the asparagus and leeks (the tough ends and the dark green tops) to create a flavorful broth that forms the base of the soup. It’s a delicious way to minimize waste and maximize taste! For more ways to cook with asparagus see our garlic roasted asparagus or my favorite asparagus omelette.
Key Ingredients
- Asparagus: Look for vibrant green spears with tightly closed, compact tips. A hint of purple on the tips is a welcome sign, too! Avoid asparagus that appears dull, yellowed, or has open flowering tips. Give the stalks a gentle squeeze—they should feel firm and snap easily when bent. Limp or bendy asparagus is past its prime.
- Leeks: Think of leeks as sweet, mellow onions. We’ll use the white and light green parts in the soup and the tougher dark green tops for our asparagus broth. To clean leeks, trim the root end and the dark green tops. Then, slice the leek lengthwise and rinse thoroughly under running water to remove any grit between the layers. Check out my article about how to clean leeks for more tips!
- Carrot: One carrot adds a touch of sweetness and color to our broth.
- Garlic: I use garlic cloves both for the broth and in the soup itself.
- Potatoes: These are the secret to a super creamy, silky asparagus soup! We skip the cream altogether and use potatoes, like russet or Yukon Gold, to add body and a silky texture.
- Spinach: A few handfuls of baby spinach are perfect for adding an extra vibrant green color and a boost of nutrients to the soup. We add this at the very end.
- Lemon: I love serving asparagus soup with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on top. It brightens everything up and makes the flavors taste incredible.
- Cheese (Optional): We have used parmesan in our photos, but a spoonful of ricotta or mascarpone cheese is amazing.
How to Make Asparagus Soup
My asparagus soup is a simple two-part process. First, we’ll make our simple asparagus broth using the parts of asparagus and leek that you’d normally toss in the trash. Then, we’ll use that simple broth to make our creamy soup.
The broth takes about 30 minutes and tastes light and fresh. It’s made with the tops of leek, the stems of asparagus, a carrot, garlic cloves, and a bay leaf. Simple!
The soup comes together quickly. Cook the white and light green parts of a leek in a bit of oil until soft, then follow up with the garlic cloves used to make the broth, potatoes, and asparagus. Then, right at the end, when everything is tender, add a few handfuls of spinach. Blend until smooth and serve with a squeeze of lemon and some cheese (optional, but delicious).
Perfect Asparagus Soup
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This simple asparagus soup is delicious, vegetarian, and minimizes waste. Instead of using stock to make the soup, we make a quick asparagus broth using the asparagus and leek trimmings. The broth is delicate and fragrant and is the perfect way to make use of trimmings instead of throwing them away.
You Will Need
2 pounds asparagus
1 large leek
1 medium carrot
2 garlic cloves, gently smashed
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced, about 1 pound
3 cups baby spinach
Half of a lemon, cut into wedges
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Parmesan cheese, ricotta, or mascarpone for garnish, optional
Directions
- Make Asparagus Broth
1Trim the dry, woody bottoms of the asparagus. To find where to trim, bend the stalks until they naturally snap. Cut or snap at that point. Save the tops for the soup and add the stems to a large pot.
2Cut the dark green tops from the leek and rinse them well to remove any grit. Add these to the pot with the asparagus stems. Rinse the leek’s lighter green and white parts and set them aside.
3Add the carrot, smashed garlic clove, bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper to the pot.
4Cover with 9 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt, adding a little at a time until you can taste the broth’s flavors without it being overly salty. Strain the broth and reserve the garlic cloves.
- Make Asparagus Soup
1Thinly slice the reserved white and light green parts of the leek.
2Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.
3Add the sliced leeks and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook, stirring often, until softened and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
4Stir in the reserved garlic cloves and cook for one more minute. Add the potatoes and 6 cups of the asparagus broth (save the rest for thinning later). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes.
5Meanwhile, cut the tips from 12 asparagus spears measuring about 1 ½ inches from the top. Set these aside for garnish. Roughly chop the remaining asparagus.
6Once the potatoes are tender, stir in the chopped asparagus (not the reserved tips) and simmer until tender-crisp and bright green.
7Remove from the heat and stir in the spinach until wilted but still bright green, about 1 minute. Blend the soup until smooth using an immersion blender (or a regular blender in batches).
8Taste and season with more salt and pepper as needed. If the soup is too thick, thin it with the reserved asparagus broth, 1/4 cup at a time.
9Just before serving, cook the reserved asparagus tips in boiling salted water until tender-crisp and bright green (about 3 minutes). Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.
10Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the asparagus tips and cheese (optional). Serve with a lemon wedge for squeezing over the top.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: The soup’s bright green color may dull slightly over time, but you can store this in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Blending the soup: I use an immersion blender. If you use a stand blender, remember to blend in batches. If your soup is hot while blending, you want to remove the lid’s center insert and cover it with a kitchen towel while blending, helping some of the steam release and preventing the lid from popping off (which can be a big, hot mess).
- Leftover broth: Use it in other soups to cook rice or grains or make risotto.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We did include 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese in the calculations for each serving (there are 6 servings total). We omitted salt from the calculations since you must add to your tastes.
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Love the full flavor you get from this recipe — asparagus is definitely front and center. The vegetable stock makes all the difference. Also, if you’re out of potatoes, but have dried potato flakes in the cupboard, stirring 3/4 cup into the finished soup was a convenient and completely undetectible thickener.
So happy you think so! Great suggestion for potato flakes. They are a great idea if you are out of potatoes.
Smells great already.Will have it for tomorrow.
Wonderful! So happy you gave our recipe a try!
Loved it!
That makes us so happy, Janet! Thanks for coming back and letting us know.
Thanks. It turned out delicious. I didn’t have leeks on hand so I used a couple of onions which worked well. I love that you don’t let the lower stems of the asparagus and the the leek trimmings go to waste. I’ll be making this again.
That’s amazing and I am so happy onions were a good substitute for the leek.
I will make this tomorrow! i love asparagus! the colour is awesome!
I think so, too! The spinach at the end really helps keep this soup bright green.
I made this and it was wonderfully tasty. As I am a vegan I added a veg bouillon cube and some nutiontal yeast at the end instead of parmesan.Thaks for a recipe that’s a keeper!
This is an incredible recipe! It knocked everybody’s socks off when they tasted it. The only modification I made was to use chicken stock to boil the asparagus stems. It seemed, to me, that to depend on the asparagus alone for body was a bit risky. There are many promising possibilities for adding/modifying/extending this recipe.
SO happy you tried it, Paul and I am glad you enjoyed it with chicken stock.