Leek & Potato Soup

Elegant, simple. Leek & potato soup.

Leek and Potato Soup – Vichyssoise

The sign of a real classic is how many versions you can find.  I’ve eaten so many different takes on what sounds such a simple vegetable soup, and they’re all good. Like a good trench coat, it can be posh, it can be practical, it can be dressed up or slobbed down, treated like a valuable possession or just wheeled out when needed without fanfare to do a job quietly and efficiently.

You can:

• Add quite a bit of cream to the basic mixture, serve it cool with a froth on it in tiny little cups and talk with a French accent for a very posh Vichyssoise;
• Puree it completely so you have a very smooth soup, serve hot or cold
• Puree it roughly so you have a chunkier soup, serve hot
• Puree it completely and top it with pieces of fried leek
• Top it with crumbled fried bacon or fried crispy pancetta pieces

 
This is what I do for a lunchtime soup beloved by all the family. I like to use a chicken stock as the base but use vegetable stock if you prefer. I use bones from any chicken that we eat (and some fresh vegetables and herbs too, of course) to make a basic stock in the slow cooker so I always have a good chicken stock in the freezer, which adds a richness and fattiness to any mainly vegetable soup.
 
Serves 6               Timings:  1 hour, then time to cool and re-warm

• 3 medium leeks, cleaned and washed, cut into rings
  
• 2 medium onions, about 150g, peeled and cut up fine
  
• 2 medium potatoes, about 150g, peeled and cut up into matchsticks – or use leftover mashed potato from last night’s dinner
  
• 750ml stock, either chicken or vegetable
  
• 200ml milk or single cream
  

Gently fry the onions in some oil until tender, add the rings of leek and fry again until you can see the green becoming brighter. Add the stock and tip in the potatoes. Bring the soup to a mild simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Leave to cool in the pan as this will finalise the cooking of the potatoes right through.

When cold, liquidise, adding the milk or cream. Taste for seasoning and adjust – you will probably need some salt and pepper unless you used a stock cube which is already quite salty.

Eat cold if you like, or warm up carefully (don’t boil because of the milk in it) and eat with fresh bread or with your chosen toppings.