a lighter potato/leek soup

I seem to have several recipes for potato leek soup. I happen to be quite a fan of leeks, and soup is one of my favorite things to make—but the recipes I looked at all seemed too heavy for a warm summer day. I searched around for some summery soups to enjoy, and just happened upon a spring recipe for potato leek soup with no milk or butter in it to make for a lighter dinner while still making use of the leeks I had my eye on. This recipe from http://chicagoist.com looked fairly simple, which appealed to me as a low-key weekend dinner option that wouldn’t take up a lot of my time. I of course ended up making it a major project, as I chose this time to also make homemade vegetable stock to use in the soup, but it really was worth it.

Ingredients:


1 clove of garlic, diced

½ cup diced pancetta

1 tbs olive oil

2 large leeks, chopped (the white/pale green parts)

1 pound of yellow potatoes

1 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup water

flat leaf parsley and green onions (for topping)

In a medium-sized pot, boil potatoes until slightly soft. I put mine in the refrigerator to cool off, as they need to be cut into 1 inch cubes and I didn’t feel as though second-degree burns would go all that well with my soup. This also frees up the pot to use for the next steps, which means less dishes for me to wash! Next, heat the olive oil in your medium-sized pot, then add the garlic and diced pancetta.

I should note here that I am never convinced that there is enough garlic in ANY recipe, and I often double or triple (in this case) the recommended amount of garlic. If you are a nonbeliever, you can stick to 1 clove of garlic, but I will say that the extra garlic was an excellent choice in this particular recipe. The garlic and pancetta should sizzle merrily away until lightly browned. The leeks are the next addition and should be cooked on medium heat until soft—you don’t want to brown them. Add the cubed potatoes, water, and broth (I added an extra ½ cup of broth to mine), and cook until the potatoes are soft—approximately 20 minutes. Blend about 1 cup of soup in a small food processor (or alternately, use an immersion blender to smooth out the texture of your soup a bit), and add back to the pot. Serve, using the green onions and parsley as garnish.

A word about parsley: I don’t really like it all that much. I might be alone in this, but I almost never buy parsley unless I think it is vital to the integrity of the meal, or if I am entertaining and want the presentation to be especially nice, OR if I have several other things to use parsley in before it goes bad. None of those things were the case in this instance, but I love green onions and can nearly always find an excuse to use them, so I garnished my soup with green onion and fresh ground pepper, which was lovely.

Summer is an excellent time to enjoy a nice chilled glass of rosé, and, incidentally, rosé pairs quite well with this soup. I am a bit of a neophyte when it comes to rosé, I must admit, but I spent a bit of time exploring the selection at Metropolitan Market and I chose La Vielle Ferme Côtes du Ventoux 2009 rosé, which was a lovely deep pink in color, and was dry with a fruity bouquet. It was also affordable—I believe it was under $9 on sale. I will definitely be drinking more rosé as our summer heats up!