I have been making leek and potato soup for years, in fact its pretty much the only soup I do ever make on a very regular basis. Its a classic, easy, tasty soup and its fail safe…everyone loves it!

I think, with the leek and potato soup, as with a lot of soups you can take it in two directions. The first is keeping it clean and fresh with seasonal vegetables, stock and not much more, so you can really taste the veg…leeks are great at this time of year so why spoil them.

You can keep it fresh and healthy tasting, and also very quick with limited ingredients. Just sweat your onion and leek until nice and sweet, add your potatoes for a few minutes and then simmer with the stock and blitz…thats it. Season it to perfection and serve up with some crusty brown bread.

You can then take it more in the direction of my recipe here which tastes this basic, heathy recipe and pumps its full of cream and serves it with something toasty and cheesy. Both as equally delicious and adaptable as ever.

Do you use the whole leek?

The lighter, whiter part of the leek is the sweetest and will produce a delicious soup. The darker green leaves towards he end of the leek are generally removed and reserved for stock. You can ofcourse add them to the soup as they are most certainly edible but will produce a slightly bitter flavour to the final flavour of the soup.

What stock to use?

You can use either a vegetable or chicken stock cube, both would be absolutely fine and to be honest makes it nice and quick but if there is eve a time to make homemade stock…this is it! The flavour to the finished soup is just a different level and once you have a few batches in the freezer its just as quick as a stock cube. Check out my recipes for vege stock and chicken stock…you wont regret it I promise!

Cream or milk or both?

If you want a touch of creaminess, add a swig of full fat milk, if you want it thick and creamy, add cream…its that simple. I have seen recipes which use crème fresche but I have never used it my self.

Serving Suggestions…

What cant you serve on top of this soup…its all delicious! You could sprinkle crispy bacon, crispy salted leeks, a couple of bits of blue cheese or a nice sprinkle of salt and pepper from a height over the top of the soup is amazing. Some crispy, salty croutons…even garlicy croutons would be tasty!

You can either serve it with some homade crusty bread, I think a brown loaf actually goes really well with this soup. You could also do some cheese on toast and dunk it…amazing!

serves 3 people

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Ingredients…

• 50g butter
• 3 leeks finely sliced
• 2 medium potatoes 1cm cubes
• 1 small onion
• 1 litre chicken or veg stock
• 100ml cream

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Method…

• Melt your butter in a medium sized pan and add your leeks, onion and potato…
• Put your lid on and cook on low to medium for 10 minutes until the veg start to soften…
• Remove the lid, add your stock and cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the veg are just cooked through…
• Remove from the heat and puree until smooth using a blender…
• Season to perfection with salt and pepper and stir in your cream…
• Serve up with homemade crusty brown bread…