leek and potato soup | organised castle

In the week since my last post I have celebrated another year around the sun. My birthday was fairly low-key but enjoyable. GMan and I had dinner at the local hotel and I was overwhelmed by the many celebratory messages from family and friends both near and far.

The soundtrack to our lives for the past several weeks has been the heavy machinery working on completely resurfacing a couple of kilometres of our road. It is the main truck route which bypasses the historic centre of town and some sections were in very poor condition so the upgrade is welcome. It should be finished within the next week or so.

These are a couple of views at the moment. It is all wet as the water truck had just been past. They are working hard to minimise the impact of dust on adjacent properties.

As you can see from the photos we are enjoying some glorious autumn weather but we know that winter is not too far away.

Hence, one of my activities today was to cook up a big pot of leek and potato soup. I bought a 5kg bag of local potatoes from the farm gate about 10 days ago so the soup was a perfect way to use quite a few of them. I bought 3 large leeks a few days ago.

Here they are sliced up and ready.

I like to have a stock of premade soup in the freezer as it is perfect for a quick lunch or evening meal in the cooler weather. I have a bunch of celery which will also be turned into soup. That could be a job for tomorrow.

Today I have made leek and potato soup. It is winter here in Australia and although we live in a relatively mild climate there is something appealing about a pot of homemade soup on a damp, grey day.

There are plenty of recipes on the internet for leek and potato soup but this is my version.

LEEK & POTATO SOUP

Ingredients

1 medium/large leek
3 medium/large potatoes
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder
1 teaspoon dried celery leaves
1 teaspoon rosemary salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1.5 litres water

Method

Wash and thinly slice the leek. Heat oil in a large pot and saute the leek. Stir constantly to avoid it browning. When the leek is soft, add 1 litre of water and the stock powder and other seasonings. Simmer gently.

Meanwhile, peel and dice the potato. Microwave until tender. Reserve about 1/3 of the potato cubes and add the rest to the soup and continue simmering for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and blend until smooth. I use a handheld blender for this. Roughly mash the remaining potato and stir into the soup. Add more water to create desired consistency. Check and adjust seasoning as required.

NOTES:

Be extremely careful when blending hot soup.

You may choose more, less or different seasoning to what I have used.

I make the rosemary salt by stripping the leaves from the stems, dehydrating them and then grinding to a powder which I mix 50/50 with a good quality salt.

Soup simmering.