Nearly every time I pick up the weekly farmshare, I am reminded of the saying, “What grows together, goes together.” At the height of the summer, each produce box looks designed to make ratatouille. When the basil is exploding, so are the tomatoes, giving us no reason not to make Caprese salads every night for dinner. When the cilantro is abounding, so are the chilies, leaving us no choice but to make large vats of pico de gallo and sit around the bowl with a heap of chips. There’s a reason the hardy herbs like sage, rosemary, and thyme pair so well with the hardy squashes, potatoes, and root vegetables of all kinds. The past few weeks, potatoes and leeks have been snuggling in the produce share, and though I often separate the two — leeks go into this pasta carbonara, potatoes become oven fries — it was time to unite them. I would be lying, too, if I didn’t admit the influence of one of you (hey, Kathleen 👋 ), who emailed me last weekend with questions about focaccia but also to say: “I was looking for a potato leek soup recipe (CSA this week) & was shocked one did not exist on your site!” That IS shocking. I referenced a few recipes from a few favorite old books (Love Soup and A New Way to Cook) and decided to keep it very simple: sweat leeks covered for about 10 minutes until they begin to melt, add peeled and diced potatoes along with vegetable stock, simmer till the potatoes collapse, purée until smooth, add a splash of cream, and crack lots of fresh pepper over top. Because it is such a simple soup, its success lies in the details. If you are up for it, I encourage you to make the vegetable stock from scratch, which requires all of about 5 minutes of hands-on work. It simmers for 45 minutes, and when it’s done, you’ll have two quarts of highly seasoned earthy liquid to use in any soup, stew, or risotto your heart desires. Also, because this is a puréed soup (i.e. it will lack textural variety), it’s nice to serve it with some sort of garnish. Here I’ve toasted fresh bread crumbs with a few tablespoons of olive oil; then mixed them with fresh chives and lemon zest. It’s a simple but very tasty touch — I like eating my soup with a spoonful of the crumbs in every bite. Of course, a slice of toasty bread for dunking will do.
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How to Make Potato-Leek Soup
Gather your ingredients:
Slice the leeks and soak them:
Drain them by scooping them out:
Sauté them in a few tablespoons of olive oil:
After 10 minutes covered, they’ll look like this:
Peel and dice two pounds of potatoes:
Add them to the pot along with…
… vegetable stock, chicken stock, or water:
Bring it to a simmer:
Then simmer till the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.
Purée until smooth; then add a little bit of cream…
… and return to the stovetop to simmer for a few minutes more:
To serve, toast up some bread or make some toasty, herby bread crumbs: purée some stale bread in the food processor and chop up some chives or parsley.
Toast the bread crumbs stovetop in a few tablespoons of olive oil:
Then add the herbs and lemon zest:
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If you are up for it, I encourage you to make the vegetable stock from scratch, which requires all of about 5 minutes of hands-on work. I used to make homemade chicken stock for nearly every soup I made, but now, more often than not, I use vegetable stock, which is just as tasty and takes a fraction of the time. If you don’t have time to make vegetable or chicken stock, I would use water, and if you have a bay leaf on hand, add it to the pot along with the water.
