Asparagus | The Picky Eater: A Healthy Food Blog

Tonight I was looking for a healthy, light, summer supper. And I came across this great recipe a few weeks ago from The Duo Dishes for a creamy asparagus soup – and I decided that tonight was a great night to try it! I also threw together Whole Wheat Pita Pizzettes which turned out great (recipe to follow). So first – the soup. Thanks Duo Dishes! I loved your recipe. I did make a few minor modifications to it – so my modified recipe is below. The original is here.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

3/4 lb asparagus spears, trimmed and chopped in 1 inch pieces
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
10 green onions, chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
15 ounces chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup flat parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted and finely chopped
Freshly grated parmesean cheese (1 tbsp per bowl of soup)
Garlic salt
Black Pepper

Directions

1. In a large pot, add olive oil, onions and garlic over medium heat. Let mixture sweat, but do not let the garlic burn.

2. Once the onions have turned translucent (about 5 min), add the stock and chickpeas. Increase heat to medium high allow come to a boil. Add asparagus and cooks until tender but not limp. Add half of parsley and stir until incorporated.

3. Blend ingredients (I used a hand blender which worked great – I just took the pot off the heat and blended it in right in the pot!) If you don’t have a hand blender, you can use a regular blender: With a slotted spoon, scoop solid ingredients into a blender. Pour in half of the remaining broth. Blend until just smooth.

4. Add lemon juice, parsley and pine nuts. Continue to blend. (If you are using a regular blender – this is where you’d add the rest of the broth as well).

5. Add garlic salt and black pepper to taste

6. Top each bowl with 1 Tbsp fresh parmesean cheese

Enjoy!

Soup fully blended

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Whole Wheat Pita Pizzettes with ….Goat Cheese, Tomatoes, Peppers, Onions, Basil, Garlic 🙂

Ingredients

Whole wheat pita bread (each pita bread should have no more than 140 calories per round, and 3-4g fiber)
Fresh goat cheese
Fresh basil, thinly sliced
2 Roma Tomatoes, thinly sliced
Red onion – diced
1/2 red pepper – diced
2 cloves garlic – minced
1 tsp olive oil
Black pepper

Directions

1. Mix the garlic and olive oil. Using a pastry brush, lightly spread on both sides of the pita. On a panini press or a grill pan, grill the pita on both sides until crispy.

2. Crumble the goat cheese on the pita (I put a light layer of crumbles because you don’t need that much cheese to get the great goat cheese flavor!)

3. Spread the tomato slices, diced red pepper & red onion on top of the goat cheese. Top with fresh basil slices.

4. Use 1/4 tsp of the garlic olive oil mixture and sprinkle on top of the pizette.

5. If you have a toaster oven, toast on low for 3-4 min. If you don’t have a toaster oven, you can put the pizzettes under a broiler for 3-4 min until the cheese and ingredients are warmed through.

6. Top with a sprinkle of black pepper.

Finished Product

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Dinner is Served!

This dinner turned out to be so great – and was light enough for a summer evening! Also – I think 1 bowl of soup and 1 pizzette is probably no more than 450-500 calories, and has tons of fiber (asparagus, chickpeas and the whole wheat pita are all super high in fiber).