This is one of my favourite soups. It’s a very simple recipe to make and only uses a handful of ingredients. All you need are leeks, potato, onion, Knorr Chicken Stock Pot and some cream. My finishing touch is that I pass it through a fine sieve to make it silky smooth. Have a look at my tip: How to Make the Ultimate Dinner Party Soup. This makes it a special occasion soup, but for a weekday meal you don’t have to pass it through a sieve, simply serve it chunky with a piece of crusty bread. It’s your choice. In France (where they call it vichyssoise) they serve this soup hot or cold and, though I like it hot, I must admit that on a summer’s day it is very good served cold.
Method
1. Place the Knorr Chicken Stock in a large pan and bring to a gentle simmer.
2. Melt the butter in a separate, large, heavy saucepan. Add in the onion, leek and potato and cook over a high heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly so that the vegetables sweat, that is cook without colouring. The reason I do this, is that I want to drive out the moisture from the vegetables and so bring out their flavour. Have a look at my tip: The Secret to Sweating Your Vegetables.
3. Bring the simmering stock to the boil. Add the boiling stock to the sweated vegetables and bring to the boil. Cover and cook over a medium heat for 12 minutes. Add in the double cream and cook for 2 minutes. For a more everyday version or if you’re watching calories, then use single cream or half-fat crème fraiche and heat through gently without bringing to the boil.
4. At this point, I like to sieve my soup to make it silky smooth, but it’s your choice as you can simply serve it as it is. Using a ladle, transfer the soup to a jug blender or food processor and blitz until smooth, doing this in a few stages if needed.
5. Pour the blitzed soup into a fine sieve over a large serving bowl and use the ladle to press the soup through the sieve; again doing this in a few stages if needed.
6. Sprinkle the chives over the soup, mix in and ladle into soup bowls to serve.
7. For a variation on this recipe, try my Leek and Potato Soup with Smoked Haddock.
