Leek and Potato Soup

Whilst my guests love my tomato soup I suspect this will be a favourite post-lock down as well. More a winter warmer but a great starter if your main includes cauliflower cheese.

Ingredients

• 50g Butter
• 500g Potatoes (any white)
• Small onion
• 3 large leeks
• 1 litre chicken stock (you can use vegetable stock if you prefer)
• 150ml Double Cream
• 125ml Whole Milk
• Salt and Pepper
• Fresh Chives for dressing (optional)

Preparation

• Peel and chop the potatoes into small 1cm cubes
• Chop the onion into small pieces
• Chop the green ends off the leeks and slice them thinly. Don’t discard the green parts as you may want them for dressing.
• Make your chicken stock
• Chop the fresh chives finely if you are using them.

Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan with a lid.
2. When it starts foaming add the potato, onion cubes, and the leeks and mix everything up until it’s all covered in the butter. Season with salt and pepper and mix it all up again.
3. Put the lid on the pan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until the leeks and potatoes are soft but not going brown. Stir the pan every couple of minutes.
4. Pour in about 800ml of the chicken or vegetable stock and bring it to the boil then simmer for about 5 minutes. The leeks and potatoes need to be just cooked but not overdone.
5. You can add more stock if you think there isn’t enough in the pan but don’t add too much as you don’t want the soup to be too thin and runny.
6. Put the mixture into a blender and puree it until it looks nice and thick with no big lumps of anything in it. Rinse your pan and when your soup looks like it has the right consistency put it back into the clean pan and add more seasoning if you think it’s needed. A little more salt will bring out the flavour or you can let your guests add salt. I prefer to do it at this point though particularly if I’m not finishing it straight away.
7. You can now put the soup in the fridge or freeze it for another day.
8. If you are serving it immediately add about 120ml of the cream and 125ml of whole milk and let it simmer for 5 minutes- stir it every minute and don’t let it boil! You can add a bit more chicken stock if you want it to be less thick.
9. Whilst it’s simmering slice a bit of the remaining green bit of a leek and gently cook it with a knob of butter until it’s softened up – don’t fry it until it’s brown.
10. Pour a portion into a warm bowl, sprinkle some of the sauteed green leek on top, sprinkle chopped chives on top (if you have them), a quick dash of black pepper and serve with crusty, buttered bread.