Scrumptious Saturday #11

Artichoke Soup for Two

To begin with, let me be sure to tell my loyal readers that I had NO intention of doing 2 soups in a row and especially not in August. I had been wanting to try the Chowder (last weeks recipe) for several weeks and that was my first opportunity. Then this week my poor husband had to have some oral surgery done just yesterday so I decided to make this soup for him tonight as it is one of our favorites. This soup is wonderful as a beginning course, with salad, bread or baked potato or just on its own as we had it tonight.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter
1 clove garlic, minced*
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp. flour
1 can (14 ounces) of artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped.
2 cups of chicken broth (I use one can - it's only 1.5 ounces short and works just fine)
1 Tbsp dry white wine (I didn't have any, so I substituted white vinegar - it works)
2 Tbsp chopped parsley (I used dried, so cut the amount in half)
1.2 cup of heavy cream (this time I substituted plain fat free Yogurt and it tasted great)
salt and white pepper
* for directions on how to mince garlic see my previous post #2 for directions

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and onion and cook three minutes. Stir in flour. Cook stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the artichoke hearts, chicken broth, "wine" and parsley. Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Cook stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender and return it to the pan. Blend in the "cream" and season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat until very HOT, but do not boil. Divide into two soup bowls and serve immediately.

Please note that the Onions came from a local organic farmer Mint Road Farms and the garlic too was from our Farmers Market