Eat it hot, and call it potato/leek soup. Eat it chilled, and suddenly you’re speaking French: vichyssoise. At this time of the year, I prefer it hot. The flavor is at once subtle and hearty: delicate leek laid over sturdy potato, with hints of vegetables from the stock coming through.
Recipes for this soup assume that you have some chicken stock on hand to use as the base. I most often do have chicken stock, but don’t use it in this soup because it wouldn’t be kosher. It must have milk and cream; chicken stock is dispensable. Make an aromatic vegetable stock instead.
It’s so easy. Here, look.
Vegetable Stock
about 5 cups
Ingredients:
1 medium onion
1 tomato
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
A few mushrooms, either fresh or dried – optional and very good. I threw in a couple of dried Shiitakes.
1 small potato
1 cup chopped zucchini or other squash (I used butternut squash)
1 garlic clove
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Water to cover the vegetables: about 4 cups
Note: wild herbs like dandelion root, nettles, mallows and purslane add lively flavor and boost the nutrition even higher. Include half a cup if you have some.
Method:
1. Scrub the potato but don’t peel it. Chop it up.
2. Peel the other vegetables except for the tomato and optional mushrooms. Chop everything.
3. Put everything, water included, in a pan. Simmer with the pan covered for 45 minutes.
4. Strain the vegetables, saving the soup.
That’s it. You won’t need all of this for the potato/leek soup. Freeze extra stock for cooking rice or enriching another soup or gravy.
Now, for de zoup.
Potato/Leek Soup (if hot), or Vichyssoise (if cold)
6-8 servings
Ingredients:
4 slender young leeks or 2 big ones: 4 cups chopped
1 medium onion
1 medium-large potato: 2 cups chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt
white pepper
2 cups milk
1/2 cup light cream (I use the Israeli 10%)
Method:
1. Clean the leeks. Remove the root part and most of the green top. Chop them up.
2. Peel and chop the onion and the potato.
3. Pour the olive oil into your soup pan and light a medium flame under it. Put all the vegetables in.
4. Cook the vegetables, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
5. Add the hot stock, cover the pan, and allow the soup to cook for 30 minutes.
6. Allow the soup to cool down. Use a blender to make a fine purée out of it. I use a stick blender, so it stays in the pan.
7. Add the milk and the cream. Blend again.
8. Taste for salt and pepper. Adjust seasoning (this soup needs a lot of salt), and blend again.
9. If you have removed the soup to blend it, put it back in the pan and heat it through, slowly. Stir often; don’t let the bottom burn and don’t let it boil.
10. If you prefer the soup cold, make sure it’s entirely cool and refrigerate it till chilled.
Don’t add anything else to it – no little grating of cheese, no spoonful of tomato paste, no pinch of spices. If you feel the need to decorate each bowlful, scissor some chives or scallions on. Anything else would confuse its pure, garden-fresh flavor.
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“and suddenly you’re speaking French”- LOL!
I have been looking for a vegetable stock recipe, thank you. Yours look simple to make and delicious. Even the vegetables look scrumptious.
In Brazil and Portugal we there is something very similar to this, we call Caldo Verde.
Hi, Katia,
You’re welcome. I haven’t thought of caldo verde in years. When I was living in Rio, I used to go to a little Portuguese resto with my friends for caldo verde – at about 3:00 a.m., after the midnight movie and several chopes. Memories!
I have made some leek/potato soup in the past and I love it(the warm version) .We used to have it at home too when I was growing up. I must do it when it gets cold again..
Thanks for this recipe! I have always wanted to make this soup.
Yaelian, if we make this soup will it get cold again?
I mean, rain…
Hannah, as you see, it’s easy and not so different as to appear threatening to kids.
Hi Mimi – we love leek/potato soup too. I include most of the green top when I make it, however (all but the toughest, gnarliest bits), giving the soup a lovely green color. I’ve always wondered why most recipes require tossing the green tops out. I guarantee that the chopped greens cook up soft enough to be thoroughly blender-ed with the stick blender. Have you ever tried it that way?
[...] Mimi: Vegetable Stock (pareve) and Potato Leek (dairy) [...]
Looks yummy, but no potatoes for me.
The topmost part of leeks has a certain amount of dirt trapped in its layers. Depending on the individual leek, the dirt can go right down to the white part. That’s one reason – but the main reason for excluding it from vichyssoise is to keep the soup as white as possible. Yes, I have used as much of the green top as I can get clean, when I’ve decided that I don’t care if the soup is white or not. Nothing wrong with it, as you say.
Stay strong with your diet, Batya!
Thank you for the vegetable stock recipe! I haven’t made it yet, but cook very little meat, and some containers of this in the freezer would be just the thing! Does it freeze well?