One day, M asked me if I liked leeks. I had no idea. Would I eat a soup made with them, garlic, and potatoes? Well, sure. And thus, this winter’s love affair with soup began. This recipe is based on Jaques Pepin’s Garlic Soup , but we modified it a bit to our taste. Though he calls it garlic soup and there is a TON of garlic in it, the taste is really NOT overpowering. Do not be timid with the garlic! I call it potato and leek soup. We used a Cuisinart Smart Stick for the blending, and it worked great! You can also put the cooked veggies in a food processor for the same result. Ours came out a bit more green than his (we used a little more of the green part of the leeks), but it was still fragrant, creamy, and delicious. It serves 6-8 people and takes around 45 minutes to an hour to make with all the prep.
Who knew how easy and superior-tasting homemade croutons were???
2 ROADS TO CROUTONS:
1. Jaques’ method: Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet, add the bread cubes and sauté, stirring almost continuously, until they are evenly browned on all sides, remove with a slotted spoon, and set aside.
OR
2. The M method: Toss bread cubes with olive oil (and herbs if desired), lay out on a baking sheet, bake at 400 degrees for a few minutes- keep an eye on them and remove pan when they start to brown. They can cool directly on the pan (and it keeps them crunchy).
Jaques Pepin’s Soup:
M and m’s soup:
Potato and Leek Soup
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 medium leeks, trimmed (leaving most of the green), split, washed, and sliced
- 12 garlic cloves
- 7 cups chicken, beef, or vegeatble stock or low-salt canned chicken broth (you can even use water if you don’t have these, that’s how delightfully rich this soup is!)
- 2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 4 cups)
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 cups cubed, 1/2-inch firm-textured white bread
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy pot.
- Add the leeks and garlic and cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften.
- Add the stock, potatoes, and salt and bring to a boil.
- Cover, reduce the heat, and boil gently for 30 minutes.
- When soup is cooked, use immersion blender to get it to the consistency desired. (Blend less for a chunkier soup, more for a smoother velvety finish. Obviously.)
- Stir the butter into the hot soup and serve with the croutons.
- If you want a truly decadently soup, you can enrich it by adding a cup of light cream at the last minute.
So I really, really, really want to try this as soon as humanly possible, in order to satisfy the strike my taste buds have been on.
I’m sure he will be glad to give you a tutorial. He is vegan 99.9% of the time now, with some room to cheat occasionally. I am discovering that I like a lot of the foods he’s switching over to anymore.