Creamy Potato Leek Soup

Nothing fills the home with warmth and goodness like the smell of homemade soup. Yet another simple soup to make is Potato Leek Soup. Easy and quick, the only trick is to make sure you purchase a leek with a long white stem (the white stem and light green parts of the leek provide the best parts for cooking) and then to clean between the layers carefully. For this soup, you could slice the stem in half for easy cleaning...in other recipes you want to preserve the 'ring' for aesthetics.

There are many ways to make this yummy soup...this is mine. If you want to make it all vegetarian (as I do sometimes) just substitute the low sodium chicken broth with vegetable broth.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

2 tbsp of butter
2 bay leaves
pinch of tarragon
1 large or two small cleaned and sliced leeks
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
4 to 6 medium potatoes, sliced
(I leave the skin on for a more healthy soup
... you may peel them if you are worried about 'looks
....the peel on lends to a more 'hearty looking' soup.)
2 cans low sodium chicken broth
(with enough water to cover)
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
(you know me....please make it fresh pepper :)
about 1 cup of heavy cream
not necessary to add cream as the hand blender
will make it creamy...but if you want to 'splurge' and
add the cream....
go ahead...it won't hurt you just this once

Melt butter in heavy soup pot

1. Add bay leaves
2. Add onions and leek sauteing until limp and just turning colour
3. Add sliced potatoes
4. Add broth and water necessary to just cover the potatoes
5. Bring to a boil
6. Remove bay leaves
7. Simmer until all tender.
8. Use hand blender mash 3/4 of the soup to make creamy. Leave 1/4 as you want some 'chunkiness' when serving.
9. Add cream if you so desire, stirring to mix and warm. Add pinch of tarragon. Keep stirring occasionally for ten more minutes and then serve with Anneliese's whole wheat bread or Marg's health buns or Lovella's no knead bread just posted yesterday