From Lisa:

“Do you have a potato soup recipe? I had some at a restaurant last week, and instead of big chunks of potato in a cream sauce, it was like mashed potatoes, but thinner. Smooth, but it stuck to the spoon a little. It was a little cheesy too, and topped with bacon. Mmmm. One of my favorite cold weather foods.. except that it’s been in the 80s here. I’d like to try making one with leeks too, except I don’t know what to do with a leek. Chop it? Blend it? Bash it up Jamie Oliver style? And what part of it – top, bottom, the whole thing?

Vegetables confuse me.”

So I came up with a potato soup recipe for her. It’s actually pretty easy and fast. It’s very smooth like a potato bisque, but if you’d like it more chunky, just puree it less at the end.

The hardest part is cleaning the leeks. Leeks grow in the sand and the roots tend to be very sandy and dirty. The dirt gets trapped between the layers of the leek, so it’s important to clean the leeks thoroughly.

The easiest way to do this is to cut off the dark, green tops of the leeks and discard them. They’re too tough to cook with.

Then cut the root end off and split the leek down the side so you have two halves. Separate layers a bit and put them in a container of water. The water should be at least 5 inches. When you put the leek into the water, give it a good swish, and then leave it alone. The sand should fall to the bottom of the water in the container. Then you can take the leeks out, dry them out, and chop them

Potato Leek Soup

6 slices of bacon
1 leek, medium dice
4 large russet potatoes, medium dice
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 quart milk, warmed
1 quart chicken broth, warmed
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a medium pot, add the diced potatoes and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are very tender (they’ll just about fall apart when they’re done.) Drain and set aside.

In a large, non-stick stock pot, cook the bacon until brown and crispy. Set cooked bacon aside and discard all but 2 tbsp. of bacon fat.

Over medium heat, add the leeks to the bacon fat and add a pinch of salt. Cook until soft, but not browned, stirring often for about 10 minutes.

Stir in the flour and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic powder. Stir in the milk and half of the chicken broth. (I warmed these up in the microwave until hot to the touch but not boiling.) Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes.

Take the soup off the heat. Here’s where you’re going to puree the soup. You can do this using an immersion blender — just stick the blender in and whiz away. Mine broke, so I pureed it in the blender in batches.

I got another pot and put the pureed soup into a holding pot. Be careful pureeing in the blender. You will need to keep the top pour shoot open so that the steam can escape — and only fill the blender up halfway. Blend until smooth. There might be a couple of chunks left, but that’s ok.

Once the soup is pureed, pour back into the original pot (it’s already warm!) and bring back to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add as much of the leftover chicken stock as you’d like until the texture is how you like it. At the end, stir in the sour cream. Do not bring back to a boil after adding the sour cream.

Top with pepper and crumbled leftover bacon. A tablespoon of chopped green onions would also be a nice garnish.