Scoop-A-Soup! – Creamy Potato & Leek Soup

Theme week will end today instead of yesterday because I was away over the weekend and missed out on Monday’s posting. Wow, it’s been kinda exhausting but fun all the same. Doing 7 dishes for theme week can be a real challenge but I can’t say I don’t look forward to it every month. Well, I will try to maintain it as a monthly thing for as long as I can.

Leeks are my new favourite ingredient. I’ve cooked with leeks before but never really paid attention to them until I made minestrone for theme week. In soups or stocks, they lend a superb flavour. For this recipe, it’s a creamy potato soup. At the end of the dish, it made me feel like I was eating some sort of soup form of the jacket potato…haha…which is never a bad thing anyhow. Potato soups are really filling because of the starch content so I left out any croutons or garlic bread. Right as I was eating this soup, there was a huge thunderstorm outside…it’s as if God knows to give me a perfect setting! Now that’s what I call a timely bliss.

CREAMY POTATO & LEEK SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients;

1 leek, washed and chopped
3 potatoes (use the less starchy kind), diced into very small cubes
2 rashers bacon, sliced
Vegetable stock
Cream
Salt
Black Pepper
Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon butter
Olive oil
Chives for garnishing
Extra Virgin Olive Oil for drizzling

Steps;

1. Render the bacon in some olive oil in a deep pan. After it has crisped, take it out but leave the rendered fat. With the bacon fat, sautee the chopped leeks. No need to add any more oil.
2. When the leeks have softened somewhat, add the diced potatoes. Sautee for 10 mins with salt, pepper and some Italian seasoning.
3. Add vegetable stock until just about cover all the ingredients. Bring back the crisped bacon and save some pieces for garnishing later. Bring the heat to a medium simmer until the potatoes are fork tender.
4. Put everything in a blender and pulse till you have a creamy soup. If it’s too thick, just add a bit more vegetable stock.
5. Pour the soup back into a pan and add about 1/4 cup cream first, if you like the taste and creaminess, you can stop adding cream, but if you like it really creamy just pour in more. Add the teaspoon of butter for shine and silkiness.
6. Taste and adjust seasoning. Scoop into bowls and garnish with bacon sprinkles, chopped chives and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Eat while it’s warm.

Enjoy!