I adore soups and Dave loves smoothies but my blender is ancient and has definitely seen better days! Luckily, the lovely people at Premium Appliance Brands sent me a Juice ‘n’ Smoothie from the Rosemary Conley range to review and I finally tried it out this week. I was rummaging around in the freezer when I came across a bag of asparagus ends I’ve been collecting. Every time we have asparagus, I break off the woodier ends which are too fibrous to eat and I save them in the freezer for soup.

The Juice ‘n’ Smoothie is actually three gadgets in one - it’s a blender, a juicer and a separate chopper & fruit strainer. So far, I have only tried it in a blending capacity but I am thoroughly impressed! It’s really easy to use and far more powerful than my old blender. Also, being a very messy person, I was thrilled with how easy it is to wash, you can even put the blender jug & lid in the dishwasher! I had to be so careful not to get the base of my old blender jug dirty/wet, it was a nightmare, so this is an absolute breeze in comparison!

There’s a great little recipe book included with the instructions and I can’t wait to try some of the smoothies and cocktails, especially now that summer’s on the way. In fact there are so many different applications for the Juice ‘n’ Smoothie, other than just blending and juicing, that I’ll be trying out all sorts of recipes, so keep an eye out for future posts!

In the meantime, here is my soup recipe to use up those asparagus ends - waste not, want not!

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients (adapt to however many ends you’ve collected)

500g Asparagus ends (fresh or defrosted)
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 pint chicken/vegetable stock
1 pint boiling water
1 tbspn rapeseed oil
Salt & pepper to taste.

In a large saucepan with the lid on, sweat the asparagus ends and garlic gently in the rapeseed oil until softened.
Add the stock and water, bring to the boil and simmer until the asparagus ends are completely cooked. The time varies on how woody the ends are, mine took 10-15 min.
Take the pan off the heat and let everything cool. I waited until mine was completely cold, as putting hot liquids into a blender can be dangerous!
Blend the mixture until as smooth as possible and strain through a sieve to remove the tougher asparagus fibres.
Transfer to a pan to heat through, adjust the seasoning to taste and serve.

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