Vegan Cream of Asperagus Soup

This recipe is adapted from an original recipe found on SkinnyTaste.

Mondays are Vegan Mondays in my little world. A few months ago I made to conscience choice to reduce my meat intake, both for health and moral reasons. As a part of that, I now observe Vegan Mondays and Meatless Thursdays. These are not my only meatless meals but it gives me 6 conscience meatless meals a week to plan.

Here is what you will need:

2 lbs Asparagus (about two store bought bunches)
2 tsp Good Earth soy-less butter spread
       (Why soy-less? Read here)
1 medium onion, chopped
6 C organic or homemade vegetable stock (watch the sodium on store bought)
2T plain almond milk yogurt*
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

*I just started buying almond milk yogurt and it is pretty good. It has a greek yogurt texture to it but without the bitterness of greek yogurt. For general eating, I like the vanilla or honey flavors but I find the plain is handy for cooking. I also enjoy the plain with a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and a few drops of liquid vanilla stevia as a night time treat. It's sweet and creamy like pudding.

Directions:
In a large pot,  melt the "butter" at low heat. Add onion and sauté on low for about 2-3 minutes.

Snap the tough ends off the asparagus and discard  Chop the asparagus into 2 inch pieces. Add to the pot with the onions. Add vegetable broth, sea salt and pepper. Cover and cook about 20-25 minutes or until asparagus is very tender. Remove from heat, add almond milk yogurt. Now you have two options, if you have a submersible blender you can use it here. If not, carefully transfer and  puree the soup in small batches in a regular blender. Be careful, it will be very hot! With either method, purée until smooth. Enjoy!

Verdict:
I love this soup! It is full of flavor and has a great thick creamy texture. With only 2 T of  "cream" I was worried it wouldn't develop that "cream of" flavor I was looking to get. You really have to blend the heck out of it to get all the pieces smooth but it is well worth it. 
A great stand alone soup or paired with a delicious salad, I don't think you can go wrong. Even my carnivore roommate loved this one. 

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog, The Clean Lean Collection. This blog will be dedicated to clean and lean recipes that I have found on other sites or have created on my own. I may venture into the world of fitness on occasion, or just about anything relating to my journey to a better me.
A word on clean lean eating...
There is no hard and fast rule on what makes a clean lean recipe. On here you will find recipes that have the excess fat, salt and calories trimmed out, and that are made with REAL food. We may use butter, we will eat carbs, and there will even be dessert recipes. Some of the things that will commonly be trimmed are wheat, dairy and refined sugar. It's not that these foods are completely bad but they tend to cause the body to slow digestion and in most cases are loaded with the bad stuff. We can use other products such as coconut and almond milks, brown rice flour, and honey to replace these ingredients. Things that will not be in added are artificial sweeteners (gross!), processed foods of any kind, and ingredients loaded with fat and calories that can easily be substituted (ie. heavy cream, refined sugar, starchy carbs).
Well that is what you will find on The Clean Lean Collection. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave feedback or requests for recipes that are cleaned and leaned up. Thanks for reading!