potato leek soup

Two bowls of potato leek soup garnished with cream and chives.

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5 from 3 votes

Potato leek soup. Make something magical from the simplest of ingredients.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1

Total Time1 15

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: French

Keyword: leek potato soup, potato leek soup, vichissoise

Servings:

Calories: 300kcal

Author: romain | glebekitchen

Ingredients

3 Tbsp butter
2 medium onions diced
3-4 leeks white and lightest green portion only diced
12 oz floury potatoes diced. Russets work well - do not use waxy potatoes
6 cups low sodium chicken stock - homemade is always nice
1 cup 35% whipping cream
salt to taste - or truffle salt if going for the optional wow factor
white pepper
minced chives to garnish

Instructions

Combine the butter, onions and leeks in a pot large enough to hold all the soup. Place over low heat. Stir until the butter is fully melted. Continue to cook, stirring every minute or two until the leeks and onions are soft. Really soft. This could take as long as 20 minutes. It takes as long as it takes
Add the diced potatoes, a big pinch of salt and chicken stock and simmer until the potatoes are tender, around 15-20 minutes.
Let cool slightly and puree in a blender. An immersion blender leaves little bits behind. That's not a great option here.
One little trick to be aware of. If you are pureeing in a blender you need to take the little cap in the middle of the top out to let the steam escape. Not doing this is a pretty good way to get soup on the ceiling. Seriously. Dangerous.
At this point the soup is ready to finish. You can set it aside until dinner if you want. Just heat it up right before you go to the next step. Or you can just go on from here. It's easy that way.
Temper the cream. Put it in a bowl and add a couple tablespoons of hot soup. Stir. Add a couple more tablespoons of hot soup. Stir again. Add the soup and cream mixture into the pot with the rest of the potato leek soup. Stir.
Adjust the seasonings. If you are doing the truffle salt option use that. Otherwise use regular or kosher salt. Add the salt slowly, maybe a 1/2 tsp at a time and creep up on perfectly seasoned. Adding salt is easy. Taking it away is impossible. Season with a bit of pepper, give it a good stir and serve.
Ladle into bowls, garnish with a bit of minced chives and serve.

Notes

If you can get your hands on fresh sorrel this is a nice flashy variation. Sweat some sorrel in butter. Follow the recipe above but omit the truffle salt. Puree the wilted sorrel in a bit of soup to make a sorrel puree. Ladle the soup into the bowl and then spoon some of the sorrel puree into the middle of the soup. Cut through the circle with a knife to drag the green sorrel puree through the white leek and potato soup. Prepare for adulation from your dinner guests and serve.

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