This recipe is from "Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery" published in Philadelphia in 1817.
Since we are going into that brief but delicious Asparagus harvesting time I thought this would be a good recipe to share. Enjoy!
Asparagus soup may be made in a similar manner to that of green peas. You must have four or five bunches of asparagus.
Cut off the green tops, and put half of them into the soup, after the meat has been boiled to pieces and strained out. The asparagus must be boiled till quite dissolved, and until it has given a green color to the soup.
Then take the remainder of the asparagus tops (which must all this time have been lying in cold water) and put them into the soup. Let them boil for about twenty minutes.
Serve it up with small squares of toast in the tureen.
You may heighten the green of this soup by adding the juice of a handful of spinach, pounded in a mortar, and strained. Or you may color it with the juice of boiled spinach squeezed through a cloth. The spinach juice should be put in fifteen or ten minutes before you take up the soup, as a short boiling in it will take off the peculiar taste.