As you might start to suspect after reading the blog of late, I love soup, and potato leek is one of my favorites.  It’s a classic and I’m sure there are a ton of different recipes out there and readily available.  So, I’m reluctant to add to the pile of recipes but I actually really like my recipe.  I’m not sure why I like it so much…it’s probably the homemade vegetable broth that’s steeped with the tough outer leaves of the leeks themselves.  I don’t know.  I don’t use a lot of cream; I really don’t feel like it’s needed.  I do add a dash of it, a couple tablespoons for the whole thing.  We have a Vitamix and it really comes in handy with dishes like these where the puree really matters.  If you don’t have a Viatmix or a similar type of blender, I would think a food processor could be used in a pinch.  If all else fails and those options just aren’t available, you can always take a fine mesh sieve and strain the soup slowly, pressing the soup gently through it with a wooden spoon until you reach a smooth consistency (after it’s been blended with a regular blender, that is).

The soup is great in that it doesn’t have a ton of ingredients compared to other soups that I make.  I use a lot of vegetables for the broth, but you can make a lot of it and freeze it for other soups in the future too.  So, that’s a bonus.  Otherwise, beyond the broth, I simply use potatoes, half a small onion, a TON of leeks (6-9 depending on how much soup I’m making), a couple cloves of garlic, and a fresh bay leaf to round everything out.  The broth takes about three hours and granted, if you are starting with that, it’s a bit of a time investment.  However, if you are using frozen broth from a previous batch of soup, the soup itself really will take less than an hour to pull off.  I would definitely suggest using homemade broth instead of purchasing some vegetable stock from the grocery store- I’m pretty convinced that it is the singular difference that elevates this soup.  So, no short-cuts with this one!

One last thing…you can freeze this soup and works great when unthawed and reheated.  So, granted this will take a bit of time but you can make extra broth for future uses and freeze the soup leftovers for future meals.  All in all, I’d say that’s a fair trade.

Garnish this with a bit of parsley.  Caramelized leeks would also be great.  We usually have this as a meal with either crusty bread or a salad or both during the late fall or winter.  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →