This is a(nother) great recipe for large groups. It’s perfect for a “Friday night soup kitchen” on a weekend away as people can help themselves to a bowl as they arrive at odd hours. The quantities listed below are thus for a BIG pot of soup that’ll feed about 8 people with left overs. Please adjust to your requirements and taste!

You’ll need:

• Onion - 2 large, finely chopped
• Garlic - 2 large gloves, peeled and finely chopped
• Potato - about 2kg, peeled and finely chopped
• Leeks - 4
• Vegetable stock - 2 litres
• Cream - 300 ml
• Chives - 4 tablespoons
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions

• Chop your potatoes into small < 1cm cubes and cook in the microwave for 10-15 mins
• If you don’t have a microwave you can just boil them up.
• Peel and chop your onions (see my comments about onions in my chili recipe)
• Cut away the root and the darker parts of the leeks
• Finely chop the pale part of the leeks. I cut the leek in half lengthways then cut 1mm slices off the half-rounds.
• Sautee your onions in some olive oil for a while then add your garlic and leek and fry it up until the leek gets soft
• Add the cooked potato and the vegetable stock. Bring it to the boil then reduce the heat and gentle boil to reduce it for about 20 minutes. Use a potato masher in the mix (carefully because it’s boiling!) to mash it all up into a nice fine mix
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Let it cool for a few minutes then stir in the cream and chives and serve with fresh, crusty bread.

Some recipes call to use a blender to puree the potatoes and leeks but I think the pre-cooking of the spuds followed by mashing in the pot does the job fine and I like the texture of the leek in my soup.