A soupçon of fantasy

Vegan leek and potato soup

My girls tease me mercilessly for having this fantasy of eating only soups and salads for dinner. 

The truth is, we are too much of a gluttonous family and unless we have gorged ourselves over lunch, we can’t bear the thought of having just a ‘soup and salad’, leave aside skipping a meal at dinnertime.

Apparently, I committed myself for life when I said, rather pompously (this is exaggeration) to this friend that “we have soup and salads” for dinner. Amidst more leg pulling and wicked introspection, I manage to maintain that in all probability, we had gone through a phase at the time and I was merely stating what was indeed a recent truth…

This soup is testimony that we really have soups and salads for dinner. Well, at least sometimes. Like on this cold, windy and blustery Melbourne evening.

A soupçon of fantasy is nice and indulgent, I reckon.  

Ingredients

2 tbsp EVO

4 potatoes

2 medium leeks

1 tbsp chopped garlic

6-7 cups home made stock (I made mine with leftover hard stalks of cauliflower, outer leaves of cabbage, one potato, one onion, some garlic, a small piece of celery)

Some of the useable vegetables from the stockpot – I could salvage the potato, onion, garlic.

Salt to taste

Freshly grated pepper

A pinch of ground nutmeg

Method

Trim the dark green ends, the roots off and any dry skin off the leeks. Slit the leeks lengthwise to make their insides visible. Take water in a large bowl and then place any sections with soil in it. You’re best rubbing the insidious soil off to ensure the sand is gone. Even then, you will surely see some sediment grains, so it’s a good idea to double wash the leek lengths under running water.

Drain and chop the leeks. Cube the potatoes (no need to peel them if the skins are clean) chop the garlic.

In a medium sized pot, heat the oil and add chopped leeks and cook for a few minutes till translucent. Add the chopped potatoes and mix well to get the vegetables coated with the oil. Cover and cook for about 10 more minutes on medium heat. Add some of the stock if the leeks or potatoes start burning.

Add the stock and the vegetables from the stock. Add salt and let the mixture simmer on low heat for about 15- 20 minutes, until the potatoes are have almost dissolved into the soup.

Using an stick/immersion blender to blend the soup till it is creamy in texture. Adjust the consistency by adding some more stock/water.

Check the salt and season with freshly ground pepper and a generous pinch of ground nutmeg.

Garnish with some finely sliced leek whites. Serve with toasted multigrain bread.

It was too cold to eat a salad. J