savory sunday // potato leek soup
The temperature dropped here in Minnesota this week, so I thought I'd whip out another one of my favorite soup recipes. This one is not Paleo friendly as it includes potatoes and cream, but it is super easy and a definite crowd pleaser, so I figured I should let you in on it.
First off, the ingredient list is pretty simple.• Two to three stalks of celery, chopped• 5-6 leeks, chopped• 1 stick of butter• 2 quarts chicken broth (only one is pictured above)• 4 medium potatoes• 1 large, yellow onion, diced• 1-2 cups cream (I use 1 cup half and half to cut back on calories)• salt and pepper to taste
So the first thing I do is chop up the leeks like so. As I'm chopping them, I throw them into my salad spinner which is filled with water. This lets them soak and clean while you work. While I love leeks, they can get a lot of dirt in them, and this is the best way I've found to clean them. Then after soaking, you can use the spinner as a colander and rinse them off.
After the leeks are cleaned, I melt the butter in the pot and then add the leeks, onion and celery. Cook this on medium heat for about 10 minutes until the leeks and onion soften and cook down a bit. My god, the kitchen will smell amazing.
While that's cooking, clean and chop up your potatoes. Feel free to skin your potatoes. I'm too lazy for that.
Once the onions and leeks have cooked down, add the potatoes. Um. It looks like this blogger might need a bigger pot.
But the bigger pot is dirty! So we'll split it into 2 pots...
Simmer the soup for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through. At this point, add the seasoning and any soup that you want to freeze, you should separate (oh, like that second pot I had to use). Otherwise, add the cream (or half and half) to the pot and stir together to warm and mix. Now, at this point I use a potato masher and I mash the cooked potatoes and vegetables to make it creamier. If you had a handheld blender, that would work wonders as well. Once that's done, you can serve it!
This is a hearty and rich soup that is perfect for cold, winter nights. And you know what else would be an amazing garnish on it? BACON. I was fresh out, so I used shoestring potatoes and parsley. Chives would have been good, too. This dish is 332 calories per bowl.For your internet share of the day, how about a recipe for chicken, bacon, pasta, pumpkin bake. Um, OKAY.