19 Jan, 2011
A soup recipe for beginners and experts alike: leek soup
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Recipes and Food
I don’t normally like to start a blog post with an insult, but I think I’m going to have to make an exception this time.
Mark has been under the weather lately, and he asked me to buy him some Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. “I don’t care about the sodium,” he said wearily, “I just want the soup.” And so I bought it.
While it was simmering on the stove I dipped my finger in the broth to check the temperature. I licked my finger, and you know what, it was kind of gross. It’s been a long time since I ate that kind of soup. My tastes have definitely changed. I just can’t to eat it anymore: (a) there was nothing chicken about this chicken soup (b) all I could taste was the salt. Ugh.
ENJOY YOUR SOUP HONEY!
Anyway, I’m here to say that making soup isn’t that hard. We don’t need to rely on the canned stuff, no matter how busy we are.
I had a bunch of leeks kicking around the house so I decided to make some soup. It’s actually really easy. Heck, if I can do it, you can do it. Here is the recipe I used:
Leeks R Easy Soup
You will need:
- 1 tb unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup water
- a bunch of leeks (3 or 4), sliced and thoroughly washed
- 1 mediumish potato
- 1 tetra pack chicken of vegetable stock (or about 900 ml if you’re using your own)
- freshly black pepper (to taste)
First, slice off the leek beards. (I don’t know what they’re really called, but don’t they look like beards? Or hair?)
Next, wash the leeks. This is a very important step. Don’t be tempted to gloss over the cleaning of the leeks. If you hurry this along too much, you’ll have gritty soup. The best way to wash leeks is to slice them, separate the rings, and dump them into a big bowl of cold water. You will need a bigger bowl than this:
Swish them around. They need a bit of swishing action:
Here’s where little people can pitch in. They can do the swishing and separating. See, you can even make leek rings!
The idea is to dislodge the sand and dirt that gets trapped between the rings. The dirt will sink to the bottom. When you’re done, don’t go and dump it all in the strainer because you’ll just get the sand on your leeks again. Skim the clean leeks off the top, and place them in a strainer and rinse under running water. Get it?
See all the dirt at the bottom? Yuck. THAT COULD HAVE BEEN IN YOUR SOUP.
Grab a large pot, put it on the burner on medium, and add the butter, toast crumbs and all:
… and the water:
… and when the butter is melted, add the leeks and give it all a stir. There might even be a surprise engagement:
The leeks will need to cook until softened but not brown, say about 12 minutes. Give it a stir every once in awhile.
Meanwhile, peel and chop the potato. Don’t fuss about the peeling. A bit of peel never killed anyone:
And when the leeks are soft, toss ’em in.
Add your stock. I used this kind, as well as a bit of other stock I had leftover in the fridge.
Don’t add salt. The original recipe (from Joy of Cooking) says to season with salt, but before you do, take a moment to look at the amount of sodium that’s already in your prepackaged stock. See, there’s already salt in your soup. If you really need it you can always add it later, but I doubt you will.
Bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are cooked. At that point, puree your soup with an immersion blender or in batches in the food processor (which is what I did.) Add water or extra stock to adjust the consistency (if you want).
That’s it! It’s ready to serve!
Season with freshly ground pepper, or if it’s too hot for the kids to eat, cool it down with a splash of milk. Serve with thick slices of whole wheat bread.
Let me know if you try this recipe. I’d love to know how it turned out for you.