Soups: Recipe: Potato Leek Soup

Subject: Recipe: Potato Leek Soup
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: Melba's Jammin' (barbschaller at earthlink.net)
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 18:12:26 -0500
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Not getting into enough trouble at the local branches of the St. Paul Farmers Market I stopped at the downtown version this morning on the way back from a party.

It was time to go home when my fingers turned blue from the lessened circulation caused by toting those plastic bags with stuff in them. I bought some leeks -- it was cool and soup sounded good. I looked for a recipe on the net and came up with one from

ron (r.f.) schmitt (rschmitt at nortel.ca)
Subject: Potato/Leek Soup
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes, rec.food.cooking
Original FormatDate: 1996/05/30
(snip)

Leek & Potato Soup

3 leeks
2 green onions or chives
8 "new" potatoes, aka "red" potatoes
Some butter (about 1 tablespoon)
1 pint heavy cream
2 cans chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you like) (by can, I mean a standard "can of soup" size)
White pepper
Nutmeg

Peel the potatoes and chop into about 1/2 inch size cubes. Cut off the hairs of the leeks and then cut off the green tops (you only want to use the white part and the light green part of the leeks). Cut the white portions of the green onions in a similar manner. You can throw out the green portion of the leeks, but save the green portion of the green onions; you'll need them later. Mince the white portion of the leeks and green onions and saute in some butter (1 tablespoon will probably do the job) at medium heat until they are tender.

Place the broth in a large pot. When the broth starts to simmer, toss in the sauteed leeks/onions and the cubed potatoes.

When the potatoes are cooked and tender, dump the whole mixture into a blender and blend into a puree. Dump it back into the pot and add the cream. Cook uncovered at a low-to-medium heat, stirring often until the soup is at the consistency that you like it. Add a dash of nutmeg and about 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper. You can use black pepper instead. I use the white pepper since it looks better in this creamy soup.

Dish out into bowls, and toss some of the finely chopped green portion of the green onions on each bowl.

This soup goes great with warm french bread!

Ron Schmitt

I almost did that, too. I was good as far as the heavy cream. I used almost a half pint of half and half instead of heavy cream. Since I'd been cooking the leeks in the saucepan, (OK, I only used two instead of three -- I had four to start with; now I can make some more in a couple days. I added the chicken broth (4 cups) to it, instead of adding the leeks to the broth. I used the Braun stick blender to puree the soup and found that seasoning it with a little bit of Penzeys Prime Rib Rub (it's heavy on the celery salt flavor) was a nice thing to do. Nutmeg didn't sound like anything I wanted to involve in this soup, so I didn't. There were a few chunks of potato in the soup when I was done. I've eaten almost all of it. No one else who lives here would eat it. Pity. His loss.
From: Jill McQuown
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 08:38:16 -0500
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Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> bought some leeks -- it was cool and soup sounded good. I looked for a
> recipe on the net and came up with one from
>
> ron (r.f.) schmitt (rschmitt at nortel.ca)
> Subject: Potato/Leek Soup
> Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes, rec.food.cooking
> Original FormatDate: 1996/05/30
> Leek & Potato Soup

I'm terribly upset that you didn't try my potato-leek soup! I'm doing this from memory...

2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 large leeks, thinly sliced
4 c. chicken broth
water if needed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 Tbs. chopped parsley
dash nutmeg
4 small round loaves of sourdough bread
2 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
4 tsp. olive oil

In a large pot, combine the potatoes, leeks and chicken broth with the salt and pepper. Heat to boiling, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the bread bowls. Slice off the top and scoop out the middle of the bread to make hollow bowls. Save the rest for croutons, etc. Rub the "bowls" with garlic and brush with olive oil. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes.

Strain the soup into another pan. Place the soup solids in a blender and puree until fine. Add back to soup and heat through.

Pour into cooked "bowls". Sprinkle with nutmeg and chopped parsley.
From: greykits at aol.comkittens (Greykits)
Date: 16 Sep 2002 08:23:54 GMT
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Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>I'm terribly upset that you didn't try my potato-leek soup! I'm doing this
>from memory...

Oh, this sounds so good.
From: mvp at web1.calweb.com (Mike Van Pelt)
Date: 20 Sep 2002 01:09:13 GMT
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Melba's Jammin' wrote:

>I almost did that, too. I was good as far as the heavy cream. I used

I've made this a number of times without the cream - just leeks sauteed in butter, potatoes, chicken broth, with a little freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg. It's delicious. Maybe it's better with the cream, but it's plenty good without it, and less fat and calories.

>I used the Braun stick blender to puree the soup

Yep, that works great for this. It's this dish that finally convinced my wife that we shouldn't give away this "taker up of space". (After fending her off on this for 16 years! :-)

>Nutmeg didn't sound like anything I wanted to involve in this
>soup, so I didn't.

It sounds odd, but give it a try. Just grate a little bit of fresh nutmeg into a small bowl of it to try it out. (The pre-grated sawdust in the jars doesn't count as nutmeg.) It really adds something to this soup.
From: Patricia Glenn (patglenn at ix.netcom.com)
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 13:41:11 -0400
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You're right, I use a little nutmeg in Oyster Stew as well. You can't really "taste" it, but it adds something indefinable.

The Potato and Leek soup really doesn't need cream, although I do add a dollop of sour cream, partially for garnish. A little shallot is nice, too.