BY COUNTRY

KIDS

 SLOW COOKER

Either way it's great. It freezes really well, although the potato bits are not so chunky after freezing. All the pictures shown in this recipe can be enlarged by left-clicking your mouse once on the picture.

KEY POINTS

INGREDIENTS
The ingredients below will make enough for at least four good portions of leek and potato soup.  The leeks and potatoes can come from the local shop or straight from your garden.  

For illustration purposes only.
Use the list of ingredients below.

COOKING EQUIPMENT
1 Medium sized pan
Knife
Teaspoon
Tablespoon
Potato masher (optional)
Scales

Method
Note that you can click on any picture to see an enlarged version.
  

First,  clean and chop the leeks. The easiest way to chop the leeks is to slice each leek longwise twice (see picture on the left) and then chop all the leek from top to bottom. Click on the picture to see an enlarged version showing the size of the chopped leek more clearly. The leek has been split four ways down the stem which makes it look a bit like celery but it definitely is leek (click picture to see more clearly).

 

Melt the butter / margarine in a pan and add the chopped leeks and garlic. Fry them over a low to medium heat until the leeks are soft. This will take about ten minutes. Stir frequently so that none of the ingredients brown.

 

Peel the potatoes and chop them into cubes. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the size of the cubes more clearly. This can be done while the leeks are being fried.

 

Add all the remaining ingredients to the pan with the exception of the milk / cream. Bring the soup to the boil and then let it simmer (just barely boiling) for the remaining cooking time. If you want the potato to stay chunky, cook for 15 to 17 minutes until the potato is soft. If you want to mash the potatoes, cook for about 20 minutes.

 

If you prefer the potatoes not to be chunky (the most popular way), simply use a masher to break down the potatoes in the pan.  You can use a blender to do this if you want but it's just more to wash up at the end!

 

Just before serving, pour the milk / cream into the soup and stir well. If you plan to freeze some of the soup, don't add the milk / cream to the pan, instead add three tablespoons of milk / cream to each soup bowl. If you have parsley sprigs, be a show off and add a sprig to each bowl!

Leek and potato soup freezes very well. If you like chunky potatoes in the soup however, these will not be so chunky when you reheat the frozen soup.  Leek and potato soup will keep up to two months when frozen.