Recipe: Asparagus and cheese muffins + Asparagus ends soup

After a few days of eating asparagus, I've gathered up quite a lot of asparagus ends (which I usually throw away because they're woody and fibrous).  I've always felt that it's wasteful to throw them away, so this time I will be making a soup with them.

To go with the asparagus soup, I've also made some savoury asparagus and cheese muffins. The original recipe uses Cheshire cheese, which I couldn't find in the supermarkets here, so I substituted with Cheddar cheese. These were really easy to make, a simple mix-and-bake recipe.

This is only my second time making savoury muffins, but we really enjoyed them. I was especially surprised that Baby D ate 2 whole ones (cheese-lover!). I like how the asparagus stems peek out of the muffins, which gives it an elegant appearance. These muffins were moist, with a lovely top crust and pretty substantial. They're best eaten warm with some cold butter.

For the soup, the asparagus ends are boiled with the chicken stock, and then pureed using a hand blender. This then needs to be sieved to remove the inedible fibrous bits. Using asparagus ends, the soup was pale green in colour (my head went "oh-no!") - I've made asparagus soup before with the stalks and it was a vivid green. I googled and saw other asparagus ends soup images which was a similar shade, so this colour is perfectly normal... phew.

Despite the colour, the asparagus flavours really came through. The soup was silky smooth, creamy and comforting. So next time, don't discard those woody ends... they make a good asparagus soup.

Asparagus and cheese muffins
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Good Food Channel
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Makes 9

Ingredients
9 asparagus, woody ends removed, stems cut into 1cm pieces, leave the tips a little longer
200 g self-raising flour
100 g cheddar cheese
62g butter
1 spring onion (green parts only), snipped
75ml milk
50ml natural yogurt
1/2 tsp English mustard
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (no fan) and line a muffin tin with 9 cases.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the cheese. Melt the butter and pour into a jug. Add the spring onions, milk, yogurt, mustard and eggs into the melted butter. Mix well until combined and season generously with salt and pepper.

3. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the flour and cheese, and stir in the chopped asparagus stems. Be careful not to over mix and stop as soon as the mixture is combined.

4. Spoon the mixture evenly between the muffin cases and push an asparagus tip into the middle of each. Bake in the oven from 25-30 minutes until golden. Best eaten hot out of the oven, spread with a little cold butter.

Note: I halved the original recipe, to yield 9 muffins. I could not get Cheshire cheese here, so I substituted with Cheddar cheese.

Creamy asparagus ends soup
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from here
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
300g asparagus ends
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion, finely chopped
Salt
2-3 tbsp cream
A knob of butter

To serve (optional)
Asparagus tips
Parmesan cheese
Bacon


1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add onions and cook for 2 minutes until they have softened. Make sure that they do not brown. 

2.Then, add the chicken stock and asparagus ends and cook for 15 minutes until softened.

3. Remove from heat and use a hand blender to puree the asparagus ends. Pass the soup through a sieve to remove the inedible fibrous bits. Place back into saucepan, and season with salt and pepper, simmer at very low heat and add the cream. Serve immediately.

* I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up (May 2014: Milk) hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.


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