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potato leek soup

Ingredients

Generally scalable with a ratio of 3:5 leeks to potatoes. The following is for a serving of about 4:

1 lb potatoes (russet are best) 2 leeks 5 cups stock (chicken or vegetable, or water) Olive oil or butter 1-2 tsp vinegar (white wine or white) 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk, cream, or buttercream (skip for vegan) Herbs (definitely dill if you're shopping, but any mixture of chives, thyme, cilantro, parsely are good).

Instruction

Chop off and discard green bits and ends from leeks, slice in half lengthwise and rinse each layer of leek. Then chop them cylindrically to create little half moons. Melt 3 tbsp of a combination of butter or olive oil in the pot, saute over medium-low with a generous 2 pinches of salt and pepper until they're very soft but not browned, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prep the potatoes: peel them if you'd like (we rarely do) and chop into roughly uniform pieces that you'd want to eat in a soup. Once the leeks are soft add in potatoes, stock, 1-2 bay leaves, and 1 tsp salt. Bring to boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes aren't tacky and smush with a fork easily.

Remove bay leaf and add in a bit of vinegar, maybe 1 tsp. Also add in cream or milk if using (a little buttermilk is really nice). 2 options: either mash the potatoes with a potato masher or the back of a spoon to get an uneven texture about that of a chowder, or blend with an immersion blender. Be cautious when blending: potatoes are very starchy and too much blending will bring it out, and the soup will get gluey. If you don't blend it you could throw in some frozen peas after mashing (they don't need to cook: frozen peas are precooked and in this pot they will come up to temp just fine).

Serve and top with olive oil, pepper, and a bunch of herbs (chives, dill, thyme, etc.)