Cream of Asparagus Soup - lazy lunch

Today is a BEAUTIFUL October Friday, and I'm feeling lazy.  The sun is shining, and in my old house, all the windows capable of being open are.  The kids are at school, I'm refusing to change out of my pajamas, and even the dog is lazy.

The last time I went to the grocery store was last weekend, so I'm running out of clever things to make.

I went to my fridge and had quite a bit of wilting asparagus left from my trip to CostCo, and my bag of baby potatoes was growing eyes.



Ingredients:

1 onion, roughly chopped
1 Tbs EVOO
3-4 garlic cloves (I use the garlic already chopped and in a jar and I use about 2 Tbs.)
15-20 baby potatoes, quartered
1 large bunch of asparagus, roughly chopped (tips set aside for the end)
1 tsp crushed red pepper
5-7 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
1 Tbs gluten free flour (optional)
seasoning to taste

1.  Heat large saucepan or stock pot over medium - medium/high heat.  Put olive oil, onion, garlic, asparagus (remember to save the tips for later), crushed red pepper, and potatoes in the pot.  Stir and cook until onion and garlic start to soften.  Add vegetable broth** and turn heat up to boil until potatoes are soft.

**I was running low on groceries, so I had about 1-1.5 cups of vegetable broth.  I made up the difference with 2 cubes of mushroom bouillon, 1 cube of vegetable bouillon, and 4 cups of water.

2.  Purée soup.  You can load it into a blender in batches, but I used my favourite kitchen tool:  my purple immersion blender.  It took about 4 minutes to get it really smooth.

3.  Put soup back in pot, add seasoning, milk, flour***, and asparagus tips.  Turn heat to medium/high and stir until soup is desired thickness.

***My soup was thick enough without the flour, because the potatoes created thickness.

I toasted some whole grain, gluten free bread and spread some Earth Balance over it.

This made a really, really delicious meal.