Traditional Potato Leek Soup – A Couple Cooks

This potato leek soup recipe is basic and lusciously creamy! Cozy as much as a bowl of this easy fall favourite.

Right here’s a creamy soup recipe that stands above the remaining: Potato Leek Soup! There’s simply one thing about cupping your fingers round a steaming bowl or mug that comforts the soul, isn’t there? This basic combines the delicate candy essence of leeks with humble potatoes and wealthy cream for a very luxurious dish. Right here’s our spin on the basic recipe: silky clean, and warming. It’s the perfect winter or fall soup for a gathering or a easy weeknight.

Elements in potato leek soup

Potato leek soup is a basic soup of European origin made with potatoes, leeks, broth, seasonings, and heavy cream. There are conventional variations of this dish in Welsh, Romanian and French cooking. One other variation is vichyssoise or potage Parmentier, made with related components however served chilly.

This spin on the recipe is made the basic American approach: we’ve added a couple of different components to taste the physique of the soup like garlic and leeks. Whereas we love embracing wholesome recipes on this web site, the heavy cream actually does pull this soup collectively! It’s a small amount per serving and the milkfat helps so as to add an expensive richness. Right here’s what you’ll want:

• Salted butter
• Leeks
• Celery
• Garlic
• Russet potatoes
• Broth (vegetable or hen)
• Contemporary thyme
• Bay leaf
• Salt
• Heavy cream

The right way to minimize and clear leeks

Leeks are a vegetable that’s a part of the onion (allium) household. They appear to be a big inexperienced onion, with a white stalk that fades to gentle inexperienced with darker inexperienced leaves. Leeks are sometimes a lot dirtier than inexperienced onions: sand and grime can get caught between the layers of the white portion. For that purpose, it’s crucial to chop and clear leeks earlier than working with them. Right here’s how you can do it:

1. Lower off the basis and greens: Utilizing a big chef’s knife, slice off the basis finish of the leek. Slice off the powerful darkish inexperienced prime and discard.
2. Slice in half: Slice the leek in half lengthwise.
3. Thinly slice into half-moons: Place each halves minimize aspect down. Then use a round movement to chop the leek into skinny half-moons.
4. Clear the leek slices: Leeks typically have fairly a little bit of sand and grime between the layers. Place the leek slices right into a bowl of water and the grime will settle to the underside. Use your fingers to shake free any seen grime.
5. Dry: Scoop the leeks out of the bowl together with your fingers, permitting any grime and sediment to remain on the underside of the bowl. Pat the leeks dry with a towel, and also you’re good to go!

The right way to use leek greens

What’s one of the simplest ways to make use of use leek greens? Some folks say you should use them for vegetable broth, however others say that leek greens have the potential so as to add bitterness to recipes. Our suggestion? We discard them and add them to our compost pile: they’re nice for compost! When you’re questioning how you can get began composting, right here’s our Composting 101 tutorial.

Suggestions for this potato leek soup recipe

When you’ve cleaned and chopped the leeks for this recipe, the remainder of the soup is a breeze! Listed below are a couple of extra notes on making this cozy recipe:

• Use thyme sprigs and bay leaf, or a bouquet garni. Complete herbs add taste to the soup, which you’ll take away after simmering. When you like, you should use a bouquet garni, which ties the herbs in cheesecloth and kitchen string. This makes them simpler to take away from the pot after simmering.
• Use an ordinary blender, not an immersion blender. Usually we just like the slick technique of putting a stick blender proper right into a pot of soup and mixing away. However with this soup, it doesn’t get it practically creamy sufficient. We suggest fastidiously transferring to a blender (cautious! the soup is sizzling).
• Don’t loosen up on the cream. Stirring in heavy cream on the finish provides simply the best wealthy physique to this soup. Don’t be tempted to make use of milk: it really works, but it surely’s not practically as satisfying.

Methods to serve potato leek soup

The right way to serve this potato leek soup when you’ve bought a steaming pot? This pureed soup isn’t fairly a meal by itself, because it doesn’t have a supply of protein. However add a couple of extra components to make it a meal! Listed below are a couple of concepts:

Extra leek recipes

Love working with leeks? Listed below are a couple of extra leek recipes and ideas: