Please excuse my cheek, but I thought this soup was doomed from the beginning. I let the leeks brown, and the milk boil, and every taste promised blandness. But once I sat down with a piping hot bowl and ate it up, I realized that, holy crap, I made kick ass Potato Leek soup! Which leads me to realize that yes, I can make up a recipe completely on the spot and it just might turn out ok. Whew.
Every recipe for Potato Leek soup I looked at just seemed…not what I had in mind. Right, you’re thinking, Potato Leek soup is pretty basic, how could it be not what she had in mind? I don’t know, maybe I was just feeling contrary. And because this soup is pretty basic, I figured I could figure it out on my own, yeah? I few tips on leeks (specifically, don’t burn them because they will taste bitter), some basic knowledge of cooking with milk and boiling potatoes, and a hint about hot stuff in blenders, and I was ready to go.
Kick Ass Potato Leek Soup
- 3 T. butter (I used unsalted)
- 3 leeks, only the white and light green parts, roughly chopped
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 medium to large red potatoes, chopped into 1 inch pieces (I like the red potatoes because then you get little red flecks in your soup from the skins, which makes it a little prettier, though it’s still a fairly monochromatic meal.)
- 1 1/2 c. chicken stock or broth (you could use vegetable broth and make this all vegetarian)
- 1 1/2 c. milk
- a few shakes of oregano and thyme
- salt and pepper
This is only the second time I’ve ever cooked with leeks, and I must say I’m a fan. I like that they impart a mild oniony-ness, and don’t make my eyes water too much when I cut them. And they look so cool, with their long green shoots, and their little rooty ends. Alright, enough with the leek revery.
Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium heat, and add the chopped leeks. Stir ’em up a bit until they’re all coated in butter, and cook them down, stirring only occasionally, until they’ve released a bit of their water, probably about 10 minutes. You want to cook them until they are just about to brown, but not until they burn, because apparently that would be bad. I’m not sure how bad, though. My leeks certainly browned a bit, but they turned out not bitter at all.
Add the garlic to the cooked leeks, and stir it all up for about 30 seconds, then throw in the potatoes. Add broth and milk until the potatoes are covered, in roughly equal parts. Add your oregano, thyme, and pepper, and stir it all up. Bring the liquid almost to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and cook away for half an hour or so.
When the potatoes are soft and break apart when poked with a fork, put about half the soup in a blender and puree it up, then add it back into the soup. You could probably puree all of it, but I wanted some chunks still in there. Oh, and I finally figured out why one needs to be careful with hot things in a blender–the pressure is a bit greater, so you really need to hold the lid down tight so it doesn’t explode all over your kitchen.
After you’ve added the pureed soup back into the chunky soup, stir it all up, salt it to taste, and cook it for just a few minutes more over medium-low heat, and you’ve got soup. Kick ass soup. Enough soup for probably 5 or 6 people, or lunch for an entire week, in my case.