Cold Asparagus Soup

Nothing says spring to me more than asparagus.   Green, glorious, green.  Fresh, vibrant, and lively.  Yes, that describes this soup, too.  It's an adaptation of one from Anna Thomas' cookbook, Love Soup.  And I do indeed love this soup.  The original recipe used heavy cream, for which I substituted fat-free half-n-half.  It also used full-fat goat cheese, and I used fat-free feta cheese.  And I used coconut oil rather than olive oil.  And I omitted the cayenne pepper that was used in the original recipe.  I wanted the fresh dill taste to stand alone with the asparagus, which it did quite well.  Savor the fresh taste of spring!  


Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. fresh untrimmed asparagus
3 cups reduced-sodium vegetable broth
3 Tablespoons fat-free half-n-half
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 oz. reduced-fat Feta cheese
1/2 Tablespoon coconut oil (or 1 Tablespoon olive oil)
sea salt to taste
freshly ground white pepper to taste


Optional Garnishes:
fresh sprigs of dill
Greek yogurt


Preparation:
Break off and discard the tough bottoms of the asparagus stalks, then thinly peel the lower parts of the remaining stalks. You want as few of the strings as possible.  Cut the asparagus in pieces and simmer it in the vegetable broth until it is tender, about 10 minutes.  Allow the mixture to cool.  Combine all the ingredients and puree them in a VitaMix or similar blender.  The VitaMix did an extraordinarily good job of pureeing any asparagus strings that remained.  


Nutrition:
Servings per recipe: 5
Serving Size: Just a bit over 1 cup
Calories: 84
Total Fat: 3 g
Cholesterol: 4  mg
Sodium: 21   mg
Total Carbs: 8 g
Dietary Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 7