Asparagus Soup

Yet another green soup. I used to think that I didn't like asparagus, that was because I had only ever tried the tinned variety, which is vile. Then I was served fresh asparagus with butter and freshly grated parmesan as a starter and realised that it is so delicious and far removed from the tinned version. I remember being in Spain ordering aspagargus wrapped in ham in a restaurant and when it arrived it was tinned asparagus with processed ham. I mean come on, processed ham in the land of Serrano ham. I don't think I could even eat it. This recipe is from a new magazine called "Landscape". 


Ingredients
Serves 4  (only 2 in our case today)
500g asparagus
50g butter or margarine
1 onion, finely chopped
500ml vegetable stock
250ml milk
150ml creme fraiche (I omitted this)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
seasoning


Method
Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and cut into pieces. Heat the fat and sweat the onion for about 6 mins, adding the asparagus for the last 3 mins. Remove a few of the asparagus pieces to garnish and put them to one side. Add the stock and the milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 mins. Puree with a hand blender. Stir in the creme fraiche , the sugar and the lemon and season.