3,240+ Recipes for Leek & Potato Soup - Ridiculous!!

I agree with him!

Once a week I sort out books that have been donated to the charity Cornwall Hospice Care. If they are worth a bit I post them for sale on Amazon, if worth a fair bit, they go to eBay or Abe books. If they are of not much value but in good condition they go out to the shops for selling around the county and (good news if you live near me) paperbacks are currently 5 for £1 in the clearance outlet. If they are in very poor condition they are sold for pulping, sadly, although sometimes I borrow and read them before returning them to “work” and throwing them away!

Many, many cookbooks come through each day and I flick through them both to check their condition and to see if they are interesting and almost always they are not!  The reason they are not interesting is that they all contain the same or similar recipes over and over again. 

Please pin for the future!

Recently, whilst doing said flicking, I happened to see 17 recipes for Leek and Potato Soup in 17 different cookbooks!

So, when I got home I googled Leek and Potato Soup Recipe and there were approximately 3,240 results.

I started reading them and every single one I looked at contained (can you guess?) a little oil or butter, leeks, potatoes, stock, salt and pepper and, frequently, a dairy addition such as cream, milk, sour cream or crème fraîche. Some of the recipes also contain onion, carrot or celery. Some people call it Potato & Leek Soup (weirdos!). See end of post for a little more on my findings.

This is my …

Leek & Potato Soup – serves 4

It is much the same as everyone else’s!

25g butter OR 2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 medium/large leeks – thinly sliced and cleaned

(see here for how to prepare leeks like a boss )

2 medium potatoes

475ml/16fl oz chicken or vegetable stock 

~ Heat the olive oil or butter, add the leeks and toss together till they are coated.
~ Turn down the heat, cover the onions completely with a piece of foil, pressing down onto the surface of the leeks and being careful not to burn yourself. (This is the way I usually cook onions too, it makes for lovely melting soft and sweet onions and leeks).
~ Put a lid on the pan and cook very gently till they are completely and utterly tender and are starting to caramelise a little.
~ Peel and slice the potato and add to the onions.
~ Add enough stock to just cover the potatoes, bring to the boil, turn down the heat, put on the lid, (throw away the piece of foil or recycle it or something) and simmer till the potatoes are tender.

Now then, what sort of texture soup would you like?

1.    For a chunky soup just leave it as it is.
2.   For a “rustic” texture crush the potato into the stock.
3.   Use a “liquidizer on a stick” or stick blender to mash more finely.
4.   Purée in a food processor.
5.   Purée in a liquidizer for a very smooth and sophisticated finish.

~ In all cases dilute to your ideal soup consistency with more stock, milk, cream etc., as you fancy, taste and season.

You don’t have to stop here, however, you can adjust the recipe to make a delicious leek and potato soup exactly to you own personal taste. Here’s a few ideas …

~   If you also fancy adding onion, carrot or celery thinly slice and add to the oil together with the leeks.
~   Use bacon fat to cook the leeks and top with crispy bacon.
~   Add cream, chill, serve cold and call it Vichyssoise.
~   Add some shredded cooked chicken just to heat through.
~   Add cooked fish or shellfish and cream for a seafood chowder.
~   Add a little cooked smoked fish – it goes really well with the leeks.
~   Add some herbs, right at the end of cooking, chives seem to be quite common with leek and potato soup.
~   Stir in some grated cheese just before serving.
~   Purée in a bunch of watercress. 

There is definitely a market for lavishly illustrated, gorgeous recipe books but surely, if they just repeat what everyone else says, they are not the most useful if you actually want to know how to cook. 

Great Preview Here

I write cookbooks too, but they are rather different from the ones referred to above. In my Genius Recipe books each give one key recipe together with many dishes based on that recipe together with all the handy hints, good ideas, serving suggestions, ancillary recipes and information I can think of to help the reader experiment confidently and vary the key recipes to their own taste. 

Here is my soup cookbook Soup ~ (Almost) the Only Recipe You'll Ever Need wherein, like every other cookbook, you can find a recipe for leek and potato soup.  You can also find the one basic key recipe together with 60+ soups based on that basic recipe and loads of useful information on soup making.

Google Search Results

These are a few of the Leek and Potato Soup recipes I checked out on Google, they were all very similar. I’ve added any additional ingredients or variations on the basic soup, where applicable … 

I checked out quite a few more but I think you get the point and I don’t need to all the leek and potato soup recipes in the world!

The Most Flexible Soup Recipe Ever ~ because “Homemade Soup is No Place for Narrow Dogmatism”

Robert Farrar Capon, an Episcopal Minister, Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Exuberant Foodie writing in America in 1969 said …

“Homemade soup is no place for narrow dogmatism. Do anything that comes into your head except over salt.  It is impossible to go wrong.”

And …

This is a man after my own heart and these my thoughts exactly, only better expressed!  Soup is so easy to make, so delicious and so comforting.

I have a very simple, very flexible method of making soup  which can be varied to create an incredible variety of soups, from simple Leek and Potato to Caribbean Callaloo, Caldo Verde, Cullen Skink and even some soups that don’t begin with the letter C! In fact I have used this method over the years as a chef to make pretty well any soup I wanted to.

Simple Soup Recipe

The basic recipe makes enough for 4 as an appetizer or 2-3 as a “meal in a bowl”, depending on what you add and how hungry you all are.

30g/1oz butter OR 2 tablespoons of olive oil, to be healthier and still delicious
2 med/large floury potatoes such as King Edward or Maris Piper
(*** see below for a new breed we’ve just discovered)
stock or water
salt and pepper

~   Peel the onions, halve them lengthways and thinly slice into half-moons.
~   Heat the butter or oil in a saucepan with a lid and toss and separate the sliced onions in the fat to coat.
~   Sprinkle with a little salt.
~   Press something appropriate (a piece of foil, a piece of baking parchment, greaseproof paper or a butter wrapper) directly onto the onions to cover completely. Try not to burn yourself on the side of the pan.
~   Turn the heat down to low and put the lid on the pot; the onions should not so much fry in the butter or oil as gently steam in it.
~   Cook slowly until the onions are soft enough to cut with the edge of a wooden spoon. You can stir once or twice during this time and they should take about 30 minutes.
~   When really tender peel and thinly slice the potatoes and add them together with enough stock or water to just cover them. You may need more liquid to finish the soup but it’s best not to use more than necessary at this stage; less splashy when mashing or puréeing.
~   Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover with the lid and cook till the potatoes are tender.
~   Taste and season till delicious.

Have a Look Inside!

Et voila (as they say in America), you have a very good, cockle-warming soup but there is so very much you can do with it, so very much more that I have written Soup (almost) the Only Recipe You'll Ever Need! giving not only 60+ recipes for soups based on this basic soup recipe but also all the information I can think of for using different fats, seasonings, herbs, spices, vegetables, cheeses, dairy and other additions so that it is easy to confidently create new soups.

As a taster here is a recipe straight from the book …

Roasted Garlic & Parmesan Soup

For a more intensely cheesy flavour, if  you have both time and the leftover rind of a piece of Parmesan cheese, simmer said rind in the stock you will be using for about an hour before making the soup.

Pin for later!

1 x basic recipe
1 whole head of roasted garlic – instructions in the book or see here for how to roast garlic
about 1 tablespoon olive oil
90g/3oz grated Parmesan cheese plus more for serving
150ml/5 fl oz double (heavy) cream

~   Make the basic soup.
~   When ready squeeze the soft roasted garlic from its skins into the soup and purée until smooth.
~   Return to the pan and stir in the cream and Parmesan.
~   Bring to a simmer, taste and adjust seasoning again.
~   Serve hot with croutons and more Parmesan.

In addition to soup recipes and useful soup making info I also include recipes for stocks, garnishes, some handy ancillary recipes and what to do with leftover soup including a rather surprising idea.  And remember ...

Sagitta Potatoes

Instead of buying a few potatoes every week we buy a sack every couple of months or so, it is far more economical that way.  We always have a choice of potatoes to buy and this time found a breed I have never heard of before; Sagitta. 

The lady in the shop said they were good all-rounders and up to now we have been very pleased indeed with them.  They make excellent mash, gorgeous jacket potatoes (the skin is slightly thicker than normal and we do like our skin – I rub it with salt and oil before baking which makes it extra good), sautéed potatoes were excellent and they worked very well in this soup recipe.  So, if you see them give them a go.

Two Sweet Potato Recipes in one Bowl!

Looking through the fridge today I found some middle aged sweet potatoes, some of them turning grumpy, and remembered an old favourite I haven’t had for a while ...

Spicy Sweet Potato & Coconut Soup – serves at least 2

As you can see the coriander is optional.  I like it a lot but some people say it tastes like bed bugs - what mysterious lives they must lead.

1 med onions – thinly sliced

1 tablespoons of olive oil

1 small floury baking potato

1 large pink fleshed sweet potatoes

1 tsp Thai red curry paste or to taste

1 can coconut milk – do not shake; in fact try to keep it still for as long as poss before opening

a small bunch of fresh coriander

~   Heat the olive oil and toss together with the onions till they are coated.

~   Turn down the heat, cover the onions completely with a pieces of foil, pressing down onto the surface of the onions.

~   Put a lid on the pan and cook very gently till they are completely and utterly tender and are starting to caramelise a little.

~   Stir the curry paste into the onions and cook for a few minutes till it smells delicious and fragrant and looks a bit separated and oily.

~   Peel and slice the potatoes and add to the onions.

~   Open the coconut milk carefully, pour off the thick cream at the top of the can and set aside for later in the recipe.

~   Pour the coconut water over the potatoes to just cover them, augmenting with a little ordinary water or stock if necessary.

~   Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and cook till tender.

~   Process or liquidise the soup together with the reserved coconut cream.

~   Season to taste and stir in the chopped fresh coriander if using.

This soup is gorgeous topped, as in my picture, with the eponymous …

Crunchy, Spicy, Salty Frazzled Sweet Potatoes

Pinterest friendly image
for easy reference!

These are extremely nibbly by nature and delicious even without any soup whatsoever.

1 good firm orange fleshed sweet potato

enough vegetable oil to deep fry *** see end of post for something important!

salt

~   Peel the sweet potato, discard the peel and then just continue peeling till you have a pile of thin strips of sweet potato.

~   Fry these in enough hot oil to cover for a minute or two till crisp and turning a little darker, watch carefully; the sugar in them means they turn colour quickly..  

~   Lift out of the oil with tongs or similar and drain on paper towel.

~   Toss with a little salt and maybe, if you fancy it, a smidgen of cayenne pepper.

Soup ~ Key Recipe

This soup is based, as are most of my soups, on my genius recipe about which I have written a book, Soup (almost) the Only Recipe you will Ever Need!

Read all about it here.

Plum Juice Spritzer

Whilst making this lovely lunch for myself I also made a plum crumble for our pud tonight and found myself with a little too much juice so … I  topped it up with some fizzy water, took a pretty picture and then had it as a sort of liquid dessert.

*** IMPORTANT - If you don’t have a deep fryer and are using a saucepan with oil in it NEVER, EVER, EVER fill the pan more than one-third with oil or you may have a disaster.

Simple Spinach Soup

~ Menu ~ 

Healthy Spinach Soup 
Polenta Croutons fried in Bacon Fat – so not so healthy! 
Red Wine

This is a variation of a basic soup recipe I have been making every since I was a tiny weeny baby chef. I have always called it “Normal Soup”, dunno why. 

It is a very simple, but delicious in its own right, potato soup and guess what I add to it ... 

Whatever I like!

It always works and I have made almost every soup you can imagine (not French Onion, tho’) including a very popular West Indian Seafood Chowder (best seller on my menu!) with this recipe as a base.

Simple Spinach Soup - for 2

1 medium onion – thinly sliced 
1 tbsp olive oil 
1 small potato
vegetable stock 
2 handfuls of fresh, clean baby spinach leaves

~   Heat the olive oil and toss together with the onions till they are coated. 
~   Turn down the heat, cover the onions completely with a pieces of foil, pressing down onto the surface of the onions. 
~   Put a lid on the pan and cook very gently till they are completely and utterly tender and are starting to caramelise a little. 
~   Peel and slice the potato and add to the onions. 
~   Add enough stock to just cover the potatoes, bring to the boil, turn down the heat, put on the lid, (throw away the piece of foil or recycle it or something) and simmer till the potatoes are tender. 
~   Stir in the spinach leaves and as soon as they wilt (possibly a matter of seconds) transfer the lot to a food processor or similar kitchen tool and purée adding more stock (or you could add cream) till it is just how you like it. 
~ Taste and season.

I topped my soup, as you can see, with a few croutons made by dicing some leftover cold polenta and frying them in leftover bacon fat – obviously! See here for lots of delicious ideas for leftover polenta!

Speaking of Polenta ...

When I worked as a chef  in the West Indies a friend gave me a tip to keep polenta smooth. 

In the British Virgin Islands cornmeal cooked with okra, onions etc. is a national dish called Fungi (pronounced foonjee) which can be tricky for a new chef fresh on in the islands with mushrooms on her mind. Fungi also refers to a style of music native to the Virgin Islands, a sort of skiffly amalgam of African music and European waltzes and quadrilles (would you believe!) It is played on homemade instruments such as gourds and washboards etc. and is excellent. 

For just a little more confusion and one which caused a great deal of superior laughter in the Virgin Islands; down island they call polenta “coo-coo” which means poo in the BVI ! 

News from the future …

I have written a whole book on this way of making soup, giving over 60 recipes plus every bit of soup-making information I can think of to help readers go on to easily create their own stunning recipes.  Read more about my soup cookbook here.