Cooking Challenge, Week 3: Asparagus Avgolemono

[rebeccafrog]

This week's challenge was a soup from Moosewood Restaurant: Simple Suppers. I spent the afternoon helping astridsdream pack, so something that could be thrown together quickly was quite welcome this evening. As it happened, I had almost exactly two cups of cooked chopped asparagus left over from Friday's asparagus-mushroom sauce (rather than mix the asparagus into the sauce, I put it in a bowl for people to add as they wished), so I only needed to heat it long enough for it to get hot, not to cook.

Asparagus Avgolemono

1 quart vegetable broth (I used about two tablespoons of Penzeys Vegetable Soup Base and a quart of water)
¼ cup orzo
2 cups asparagus cut into bite-sized lengths
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (I used a generous teaspoon of dried)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste (I used garlic salt)

• Bring broth to a boil, add orzo and cook till almost al dente, about 8 minutes.
  
• Add asparagus and dill and simmer until the asparagus is just tender (the book recommends about 5 minutes).
  
• While the asparagus cooks, whisk the egg and lemon juice in a bowl or 2-cup measure (because you're going to pour it slowly into the soup). When the asparagus is tender, whisk a ladleful of the broth into the egg-lemon mixture.
  
• Lower the heat on the soup and slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the soup while stirring constantly to prevent the egg curdling. Keep stirring a couple more minutes, and add salt & pepper to taste.

Some of my egg mixture got cooked on contact with the soup, so it was probably a little too hot. Having little flecks of egg floating in the soup did not make the texture wonky, which was my concern. I think next time I make this, I will use a little less soup base. Otherwise, it was a very satisfying and filling dinner, served with a hearty wheat bread from Le Panier. This one will go into my regular rotation.