They say youth is wasted on the young, but growing up, I felt sickness was wasted on the sick.  With chills and a fever, who could enjoy the room service and in-room television?  My parents would create a tent around my bed using pool cues and old sheets and then line up the cool mist machine to fill my own little private hideaway with moisture.  It was like a spa cool mist room, but without the cucumber water.  I’d watch “Mathnet” on PBS, and my mom would bring me bowls of soup.  Somehow knowing that my friends were all sitting on uncomfortable wooden chairs and painfully making their way through science worksheets, made my warm bowls of soup that much more satisfying.  When I was really sick, sometimes my parents would bring me a treat from the store.  Once after a particularly bad rumble involving penicillin, a very large needle, and me fainting onto my doctor’s tile floor, I was given an Alvin and the Chipmunks phone.  My husband thinks I was just spoiled.  I think life was really good.

 It is a sad irony then that as a vegan I rarely get sick.  How will I get to indulge myself lounging in bed all afternoon?  How will I procure a hot bowl of delivered soup?  How will I get my next novelty phone?

I should also warn you, in the interest of full disclosure, that the Roasted Asparagus Soup with Thyme in Vegan Table is high in folic acid, and a good source of potassium, vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B6, and thiamin.  In fact, just one serving of asparagus supplies almost 60% of the daily recommended intake of folate.  Meaning to say, this soup, in my estimation, may even cause you to thwart the flu bug waging war through your office.  Come on, man!  Give me a break! 

So I say, why wait until you’re sick to enjoy the healing powers of soup?  I won’t tell on you.  It would be especially sad to miss out on this fresh and delicious soup, bursting with the flavors of roasted asparagus, thyme, leeks, and onions.  (By the way, asparagus, onions, and leeks are all members of the lily family.  It’s like a family reunion… in a bowl.)  The soup is pureed at the end, and then roasted asparagus tips are added.  It becomes quite creamy and elegant, and would definitely impress friends at your next dinner party, you know, once you’re “recovered.”  To get an even stronger roasted flavor, I added in a few pinches of some smoked salt I’ve been dying to use.  It deepened the flavors of the earthy asparagus even more. 

Chop a salad, put some crusty millet bread in the broiler, and a enjoy a warm bowl of Roasted Asparagus Soup with Thyme.  If you’re able to find some “Mathnet” on YouTube, well, all the better…