Leek and Potato Soup

Now that I'm planning a Three Sisters Garden, I have to get the leeks out of one of the beds.  The easiest way to use leeks is to make leek and potato soup, which also happens to be one of my favorites.  My recipe is pretty simple:  equal weights of leeks and potatoes, soup stock and some seasoning.

I read somewhere on the Internet about adding a bouquet garni and using a couple of blades from the leeks as the container, so I decided to give it a try.  I made my bouquet garni with a couple of sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf, some peppercorns and 2 leek leaves.  (Note to self:  get a bay tree!)

Ingredients for a bouquet garni

It was a bit fiddly putting the bouquet garni together, but with a little help from my husband, I finally mastered it.  Next was preparing the leeks.  Since leeks are grown in a trench which is gradually filled up to get long white portions, they tend to get soil trapped in the layers.  I slice my leeks down their length and rinse them out, then chop them into sections.  A proper leek and potato soup uses only the white portions of the leek, but I'm not a purist so I cheat a bit.

Cleaned leeks and the bouquet garni

The chopped leeks are now sauteed for about 5 minutes in butter until they are wilted.

Sautee the leeks until wilted

Then place the leeks, peeled and quartered potatoes and the bouquet garni in the pot of soup stock.  I use enough soup stock to cover the ingredients.  You can always add more to a soup that's too thick.  It's harder to make a thin soup thicker!

Simmering soup

Bring the soup to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes are cooked through.  Remove the bouquet garni and puree until smooth.  A couple of the peppercorns escaped, but since they floated, it was an easy matter to remove them.  Finally, reheat the soup, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

The finished product

I served the finished soup with a dollop of sour cream and chopped chives.  Sometimes I add plain yogurt instead of the sour cream.  It's also fine without the dairy addition.  You can garnish with fresh chopped parsley as well.  A delicious soup that's easy and inexpensive to make!