The thing that you have to understand is that my husband loves soup. Rarely a day goes by during which that man does not eat a bowl of soup. And he is not at all dismayed when he has soup at lunch and comes home to find that there is soup for dinner. A two-soup day? Heaven as far as he is concerned.
What’s funny is that my beloved late father did not feel that soup constituted a meal. Part of a meal, sure. But not a whole meal. As a result, when I serve soup for dinner, even after all these years of receiving nothing but enthusiasm from my husband, I still feel a little sheepish, like I haven’t quite fulfilled my dinner-making duty.
Another leek recipe? Really? What can I say: I had a lot of leeks to play with this week.
So I suppose I was a bit sheepish the night that this potato-leek soup was all I produced for dinner. I should not have been though. A soup like this one is a perfect way to end a chilly fall day. It’s delicious, filling and just plain comforting in the way that only a bowl of soup can be. Add a slice or two of crusty bread and a crisp green salad and you can hold your head high.
As far as weeknight meals go, this soup is a workhorse. On the table in under an hour, and if your family members will be coming home at different times due to practices, sports or work obligations, it’s easy to keep the soup warm on a back burner and produce a steaming bowl as people trickle in.
Not that this soup wouldn’t work as a first course. Served in smaller quantities, potato leek soup — or potage parmentier, as we will call it for these purposes — is an elegant first course worthy of your best company. This is definitely a recipe to keep in mind as the holiday entertaining season approaches.
You have several options for pureeing the soup. If you have an immersion blender, you can use that right in the stockpot and save yourself from dirtying extra dishes. However, if you own a high speed blender, such as the Nutri Ninja Total Crushing Blender, I recommend using that instead. A high-speed blender purees the fibrous leeks so well that the final result is rich and creamy without adding a lot of cream.
In fact, this recipe, which contains at least six servings only has 1/2 cup of cream, making it healthy and guilt-free. But you would never know it from the taste. For that reason, I use my high-speed blender for all my pureed soups and I think the results are noticeably superior to those produced by an immersion blender. Of course, you can always use your food processor as well although you may have to work in batches.
Soup for dinner? By all means.
- 3 TB extra virgin olive oil
- 3 leeks, trimmed, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
- 4 boiling potatoes, such as Red Bliss or Yukon Gold, weighing around 1¼ pounds
- 1½ quarts chicken broth, preferably homemade
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Heat the olive oil in an large stockpot over medium heat. Add the leeks and sauté until softened, about ten minutes, stirring frequently. Do not allow leeks to brown. Lower the heat if necessary. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Peel the potatoes and quarter them. Add the potatoes to the stockpot and stir to combine.
- Add the chicken broth to the vegetables in the stockpot and bring the soup to a boil.
- Lower heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about fifteen minutes.
- Puree the soup in a high-speed blender, a food processor -- working in batches if necessary - or using an immersion blender until smooth.
- If using a blender or food processor, return the soup to the stockpot. Add the cream and stir to combine.
- Simmer until heated through. Adjust seasonings and serve hot.
- Garnish with a dollop of sour cream or chopped herbs if desired.
Full disclosure time: This post was not sponsored in any way. After IFBC, I received a Nutri Ninja Total Crushing Blender free of charge for review purposes. I was not asked to write about it nor have I received any consideration for doing so. As always, all opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.
