Potato-Leek Soup

The Story

It's wintertime, and my farm share turns to a (mostly) pick-your-own system. Last Sunday, we collected our first harvest, including a couple pounds of already-harvested potatoes and ten leeks I picked myself. At the time I didn't have any real plan for these items, but I came up with the idea of adding another new soup to our repertoire and began investigating potato-leek options online. Based on our healthier eating habits over the past few years, I immediately discounted anything involving heavy cream, but I made note of the variety of herbs and such they included along the way. There were a few healthier options, too, so I looked at proportions and decided what might work. This is what I ended up with, and the results were pretty darned tasty!

What You'll Need

• Leeks, 2 cups white and light-green parts, cleaned and chopped (Leeks have got to be the dirtiest vegetable out there! Slice them and let them sit in a bowl of water for a few minutes. Skim the leeks off the top, discard the dirty water, and repeat as needed.)
• Potatoes, 2-3 pounds, peeled and chopped into small pieces
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsp olive oil (This is my magic amount and I use it to replace whatever amount of butter or oil that recipes recommend when cooking on the stove top. It's enough to saute whatever I need in a non-stick pan, and little enough to keep my recipes healthy.)
• salt and pepper. (You'll need more salt than you think, since there are potatoes here; how much will depend on the saltiness of your stock. I put a couple teaspoons in when cooking the leeks in the first step and salted a bit after serving.)
• herbs and spices (How vague can I be, right? One recipe called for fresh marjoram, thyme, and parsley; others had different variations. I used what I had on hand--fresh rosemary, dry oregano, cumin, cayenne pepper--and it was delicious. You know what you like, so start with that and see how it goes.) 
• red chile sauce (I used the cayenne instead, but if you don't have it on hand, a dash of this at the end will jazz things up!) 

Preparation

• Chop leeks and saute lightly in olive oil in the bottom of a medium soup pan. Reduce heat to low and cook covered for 10 minutes. I also added my herbs, spices, salt, and pepper here. You may hold out some fresh herbs until the final stage rather than cooking them, should you choose.
• Add potatoes, stock, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer for 25 minutes.
• Using the hand blender, mix until the desired consistency. If you don't have a hand blender, you can remove half of the contents, throw it in a regular blender, and return to the pan. (I would HIGHLY recommend a hand blender purchase if you don't already own one. For a $15-20 investment, you'll get tons of use out of it. Plus it takes up a lot less room than most kitchen electronics.)

    
Serving
Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with fresh bread or on its own. The recipe above, using 2.75 pounds of potatoes, made 5 hearty stick-with-you-through-the-day servings. (If you're a Weight Watcher, each serving is 6 points.)