Asparagus Soup

What do you do when you are up to your ears in asparagus because it happened to go WAY on sale, and you just need to change the consistency altogether? You make soup. And if you don't like the fact that it is a fairly healthy soup, you add bacon! :-)

Ingredients:

2 lbs. asparagus, trimmed and cut into thirds
10 gloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. salt and pepper
3 c. vegetable broth, low sodium
1 c. milk
Sour Cream (to help thicken and optional topping)
*crumbled bacon

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the asparagus, garlic, salt and pepper in a medium bowl and spread out in a thin layer on the prepared sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a blender.

Add the vegetable broth and milk to the asparagus (you might have to do half batches depending on the size of your blender). Blend until you reach a very smooth consistency.

Add the contents into a dutch oven or soup pot and heat on medium-high, stirring occasionally, until the soup is hot again. If you think the consistency is too watery, add in sour cream by the tablespoon full until it is at the level that you want it. To top my soup off I added crumbled bacon and a drizzle of sour cream.