Asparagus Vichyssoise
On a hot spring or summer day, there is nothing as refreshing as a chilled soup. The classic Vichyssoise is a chilled leek and potato soup. To this recipe, we have added one of our favourite ingredients of the season, namely green asparagus. Try this recipe out for your next lunch or dinner.
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 bunches green asparagus
40 gr butter
1 large onion
1 large leek
2 floury potatoes
1 vegetable stock cube
250ml tub cream
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Method
1
Cut the asparagus tips into 4 cm pieces. Finely chop the remaining asparagus. Finely slice the onion and cut the leek in lengthways in half. Wash under a tap of cold water and finely slice. Peel the potato and cut into cubes.
2
Heat a pan with the butter and olive oil. Add the onion, leek, potato and sliced asparagus (keep the asparagus tips aside). Mix well through the warm butter, cover the pan and sweat for 10 minutes over a low heat.
3
Dissolve the stock cube in 1 litre boiling water. Add the stock to the pan. Bring to boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
4
Add 200 ml cream and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Blend with a stick blender (or regular blender). Thin with a little water if necessary. Cool off, place in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator until cold.
5
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add asparagus tips. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Drain off the water and cool under cold water. Drain on kitchen paper.
6
Spoon the soup into 4 bowls. Sprinkle some of the remaining cream over it and top with the asparagus tips.
This soup is also served delicious hot.
Asparagus
Asparagus season has officially started for this year! And we're so pleased, as asparagus are one of our favourite vegetables. They're incredibly versatile as they can be blanched, grilled, roasted and when thinly shaved, even served raw.
How do you best store and clean asparagus?
In the refrigerator asparagus have a shelf life of about 7 days, in a damp tea towel (to prevent drying out) it's 1 to 3 days. Asparagus can also be frozen. Before freezing, the asparagus should be washed and peeled (there is no need to blanche them). When you want to use the asparagus, place them straight from the freezer into a pan of boiling water.
To give you some inspiration, here are 2 of our recipes using asparagus. Go out and get some now!
Asparagus and Turnip Greens Pasta
Marqt
Marqt opened the doors of it's first store in Amsterdam in 2008. Since then, it has opened a further 5 stores in the city and even expanded into other major Dutch cities.
Marqt lives by a few principles which we also strongly believe in. They are:
- respect for nature, animals and people
- a preference for local cultivation and origin
- produced with passion and responsibility
- a fair price for producers that encourages stable production
- food that remains close to its source, thus no additional additives or unnecessary processes
The stores encourage consumers to be more aware of what they purchase and what they eat. A big part of the produce is organic and walking through the stores, where everything is so neatly displayed, one cannot help being drawn into a world of food.
For more information please visit Marqt
Restaurant De Kas
De Kas firmly believes that food tastes best when it is prepared using the freshest ingredients, grown and harvested with respect for nature.
De Kas has its own greenhouses and garden near the restaurant, where they grow Mediterranean vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. They also have a large field about 10 kilometres from Amsterdam in the Beemster region, where they grow seasonal vegetables outdoors. The founder and owner of De Kas, Gert Jan Hageman, is in charge of the nursery. He can be found there every day, working the soil, planting, weeding and harvesting the finest herbs and vegetables for the kitchen.
De Kas’ chefs and wait staff regularly lend him a helping hand. Harvesting in the field takes place at sunrise everyday so that the restaurant’s guests can enjoy the freshest possible ingredients. From May to October, our guests are welcome to tour the nursery and garden in Amsterdam or attend a workshop in the field in the Beemster led by the green brigade. Because they are unable to grow everything they need them selves, they supplement the harvest with fresh ingredients purchased from environmentally farmers in the vicinity of Amsterdam.
History
In 2001, top chef Gert Jan Hageman, who had earned a Michelin star in Dutch haute cuisine, found a new direction for his own career and a new purpose for the old greenhouse that belonged to Amsterdam's Municipal Nursery, which dated from 1926, and was due to be demolished. With a lot of luck and help from the municipality and his family and friends, Hageman succeeded in converting the unique 8-metre high glass building into a restaurant and nursery.
Situated in Frankendael Park, between the Rembrandt Tower and the nineteenth century facades of Watergraafsmeer, De Kas is an oasis of calm for the fifty-thousand guests who dine there each year; either in the breathtaking dining room designed by Piet Boon, or - if weather permits - outside in the herb garden.
For more information please visit restaurantdekas, or call +31 20 4624562.
SLA
We know food can be dangerously irresistible. That’s why all you’ll find at SLA are salads, juices, soups and snacks so full of flavor you’d forget they’re hearty and healthy, too. Bringing the best of both worlds, without the frills. We just eat.
SLA brings you an abundance of healthy guilty pleasures that give you all-day energy, rather than a short sugar rush. SLA spots the purest ingredients packed with flavor, and turns them into delish dishes. All you need to do is choose… whether you’ll eat in, or out. You can take-away, too.
SLA guides you through the maze of food that works. Both for your body, and (of vital importance!) our planet. Everything you’ll find at SLA is good food. Behind the scenes, we work hard to make it even better. Day in, day out. Our purposeful passion for good food means that SLA is continuously ‘under construction’. In close collaboration with our suppliers we’re constantly striking the balance between quality, locality and the seasons. We learn and improve by doing. And by eating, of course. Just like you do.
At this point, we can guarantee all our meat and poultry is 100% organic, just as the grain-based and dairy products we use (incl. eggs). Fruits and vegetables are 90% organic. Our beer is locally brawn, the wine worthy of our food and the coffee served with the fairest flair.
Locations:
Ceintuurbaan 149, 1072 GB, Amsterdam
Opening hours Monday-Sunday: 11:00-21:00
020-7893080
Westerstraat 34, 1015 MK, Amsterdam
Opening hours Monday-Sunday: 11:00-21:00
020-7893019
Claude Debussylaan 35, 1082 MC, Amsterdam
Opening hours Monday-Friday: 08:00-21:00
020-2333490
For more information please visit ilovesla