Potato Leek Soup
Here’s what you’ll need:
Cooking oil of choice (I used butter)
2 leeks
2 tsp dried thyme or herbes de provence
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable broth
1 lb potatoes
1-2 cups spinach
Bacon (optional!)
And here’s what you’ll do:
- Chop and wash leeks. (Leeks are one of those weird vegetables that you chop up and break apart the layers before washing them.)
- Heat a tablespoon or two of butter or oil in a soup pot over medium high heat. Add leeks to pot and sauté several minutes until they start to break down. At this point, add whatever dried herbs you’re using and your stock, cover, and bring to a boil.
- Meanwhile, scrub up your potatoes. (You could peel them, if you’d like, but that seems like way too much work if you ask me.) Quarter potatoes.
- When broth reaches a boil, add potatoes and adjust heat as necessary – you want the broth actively boiling, but not boiling over. Let it go for about 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Add your spinach. At this point, remove from heat and let cool. Trust me, this is very important! If you start running boiling hot soup through your blender it will probably explode all over your kitchen.
- While the soup cools, cook your bacon.
- After 15 minutes, blend the soup in small batches (mine took about 4 batches.) I highly recommend placing a kitchen towel over the lid of the blender, in case of boiling over incident as mentioned above. I leave the soup in the soup pot, and move the batches into a large mixing bowl as they’re blended – if you do so, you’ll move it all back to the soup pot and reheat over a low heat for a few more minutes while you crumble your bacon.
When you’re ready to serve, ladle the soup into bowls, top with bacon bits, eat.
