Saturday, July 12, 2008

Go Take A Leek

and make some delicious soup.


This week’s vegetable selection focused on the onion family: onions, leeks, and shallots. At this time of year, with hot weather all around us (in the northern hemisphere), there’s one great concoction that will cool you off. I’m referring to potato leek soup, or vichyssoise. This is a fantastically delicious recipe:


Julia Child’s Potato Leek Soup




It’s great hot, warm, or cold; sipped from a bowl or a cup. And easy to make. It can be strictly vegetarian or fortified with chicken stock. So, here is my contribution to this edition of Vindicate the Vegetable.



Julia Child's Potato Leek Soup




Ingredients
3-4 cups of diced peeled potatoes (1 lb.)
3 cups thinly sliced leeks, including the tender greens

2 quarts water (I used 6 ½ cups)
1 Tablespoon salt
6 tablespoons heavy cream or 3 tablespoons softened butter (I used 1/3 cup sour cream and 1/3 cup heavy cream, or thereabouts)

3 tablespoons minced chives or parsley



Procedure
Simmer vegetables, salt, and water together, partially covered for 40-50 minutes in a 3-4 quart saucepan.



Mash the vegetables into the soup with a fork or pass through a food mill. (I used a stick blender, in the pan, to puree the mixture.) Adjust salt and pepper. You can stop at this point. When ready to serve, bring soup back to simmering. Then turn off the heat, stir in the cream, sour cream, or butter (or some of each one) and top with chopped chives or parsley. It does not get much better than that! Makes 2 quarts of soup for 6-8 servings.





Thanks to hosts, Nina and Jen.

2 comments:

Jen said...

Thanks for entering this week. Looks great. I'd love to try leek soup once the weather cools down here.

Anonymous said...

Vichyssoise is a wonderful treat any time of year! I just made some myself.