Asparagus soup

I've had a box of canned asparagus at the bottom of my pantry for ages. After giving me a few cans, Mum decided to give me the whole box she had bought in bulk. I used some to make a delicious quiche, that was over a year ago.

Over the weekend I made soup. I had a handful of frozen scallops left and some mortadella in the fridge, so I used them up too. I bought a frozen bag of scallops at the supermarket, totally meant for scallop pies, but have used them all in soups, or used soup as the 'smear', or sauce on the plate. Yum! It seems Summer is nuts about scallops too, that's my girl ;)

You could use ham or bacon instead of the mortadella. Don't be too fussy how everything is cut up, the soup is going to be blitzed anyway.

1 tablespoon oil
1 large onion, chopped
60 grams mortadella, diced
clove garlic, crushed
stalk celery, sliced
medium carrot, diced
2 medium potatoes, diced
3 x 340 gram cans asparagus
2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups stock

Cook mortadella until just starting to crisp, add onion, celery and garlic. Cook until onion is soft.
Add potato, carrot, asparagus, milk and stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer covered for 20 minutes, or until potato is soft.

Take it off the heat and blitz with a stick blender. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Asparagus soup with scallops and crispy mortadella