Potato Leek Soup

{HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY}

I am Irish- like super Irish. My paternal grandma was actually born and raised in Ireland and my maternal side is just as equally sprinkled with Irishness.  I love it and am proud of my heritage.

Last year for the beloved Saint Patricks Day, I had THE worst head cold of my life. seriously. the worst. I didn’t cook a thing. I was couch ridden for like 2 days…. BUT this year I was debating between all the classics, such as my beloved late grandmothers authentic Irish Stew, or corned beef, or soda bread, or cabbage or potatoes, the list goes on and on!  But since the temperature took a dip this week here in Wisco, I opted for made this do.die.for. potato leek soup.

My mom used to make this for us when I was going up, and for some reason I didn’t really like it much until a little later on in my life. This was a little varied from the potato leek soup I grew up on, but equally delicious. Here is my recipe for a small little tribute to my wonderful, wonderful heritage. Slainte!

Ingredients:

8 potatoes (5 roughly chopped and 3 chopped into bite site pieces)
2 medium leeks
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
3 stalks of celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
Thyme (fresh or dried)
½ – 1 cup of water
3 tbsp. of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Half the leeks lengthwise and rinse, then thinly slice. Reserve about ¼ of the leek for later. Chop your onion and potatoes and mince the garlic. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot. Once heated sauté the onion, leek, and garlic until softened. Add the potatoes and 4 cups of vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and let cook until the potatoes are soft (about 15 minutes).

Meanwhile, chop the rest of your potatoes and the celery and carrots. Sauté those in a separate pan with a the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil and some fresh(or dried) thyme.

Once the potatoes in the broth are cooked through and are soft, use an immersion blender (immersion is the way to go for this in my opinion) and puree/blend the broth mixture. However if need be, you could transfer the pot contents to a blender and do it that way, but be careful!). Blend until all chunks are gone and everything is blended thoroughly. This should create a creamy texture.

Now throw in your additional potato pieces, reserved sliced leeks,  the sautéed vegetables, and the additional water to the pot. I found I needed about ¾ of a cup of water, but really the water is just to get the soup to a consistency you are happy with, so this amount can vary. Just add water until it looks good 🙂

Bring it all to a boil and reduce heat. Cook for about 20-30 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally! Season with salt and pepper and ENJOY!!

Yummmmmmm.

This soup is very low fat and chocked full of nutrients. I’m not sure if this would work, but I got the idea to do a sweet potato version of this. Not Irish at all but also maybe put a little mexican flare like adding corn, black beans, cilantro….? Sounds good to me! I’ll let you know if I get around to it 🙂

As always, thanks for stopping by! And I hope you all had a great St. Paddy’s Day!

xoxo