Cream of Spring

 We had asparagus and spinach  in the garden, as well as a gracious plenty of garlic chives. And over where the mushroom logs are, there were some nice shitakes.  Plus I had some really tasty broth in the freezer that I'd made by simmering the woody ends of the asparagus we'd feasted on earlier  in the week with onion, garlic, and the carcass of a roast chicken, also from earlier.

First I sauteed a chopped onion in about four tablespoons of butter then stirred in the chopped mushrooms and asparagus.  When the onion was translucent, I sprinkled in about a tablespoon of flour and stirred till it was blended in.

 In another pot, I heated the broth (two cans of chicken broth would work almost as well) and stirred in the chopped garlic chives and spinach. When the spinach began to wilt, I strained most of the hot broth into the vegetable/flour mixture in the other pot and stirred to blend.

The remaining spinach and chives went into the food processor to make a bright green puree -- which then got stirred into the mix in the other pot.

The soup was quite good at this point but a tad too salty for my taste -- I'd been heavy handed with the salt when I made the broth.  So I stirred in some of Silverbell's lovely thick cream. Yoghurt or milk would have worked too. 

  

Accompanied by a quesadilla (Muenster cheese on corn tortilla,) the soup made a nice spring lunch.

 

(I wish I'd taken time to get a better shot of the final product here, but it's kind of a sin to keep hot food waiting...)