The potato and the leek are happy bedfellows, as anyone who has eaten a good vichysoisse will know. Softer than potato and onion, more graceful than a chowder, warm potato and leek soup has a peaceful, almost soporific quality. A silky, cool-weather soup that somehow manages to taste creamy and rich with only the smallest amount of butter and no cream in it.
Recipe information
Yield
enough for 4 to 6
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Discard the toughest of the leaves from the leeks, then cut the tender white and palest green flesh into thin rounds. Rinse thoroughly under running water to remove any trapped grit, then add them to a heavy saucepan with the butter. Let them cook over low to medium heat for a good fifteen to twenty minutes, without letting them color, until they are soft enough to crush between your fingers.
Step 2
Once they have started to soften, you can finely slice the celery and add it to the pan, then peel and chop the potatoes and stir them in too. Cover the pot with a lid and let the vegetables sweat and soften without coloring, then pour in the stock or water and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat so that the soup bubbles gently and partially cover it with a lid. It will take about twenty-five minutes for the potatoes to become truly tender. Blitz the soup in a blender or put it through a food mill, stir in the chopped parsley, and check the seasoning.
Step 3
Cut the blood sausage into slices and grill until crisp. Ladle the soup into bowls and float the sausage slices on top.
