When I was a very little girl, I was sitting at the kitchen table eating mashed potatoes, and my mother turned to our neighbor, who was visiting at the time, and said, “She’d eat mashed potatoes till the cows came home”.
I’d say that still holds true.
Except sometimes I eat my mashed potatoes in a soup.
This is an exceedingly simple soup that is lighter in calories than mashed potatoes, but just as satisfying for this half Irish girl who is still wondering where she’ll put those cows if they ever show up on her doorstep.
Postato Leek Soup
This recipe is from Richard Olney’s cookbook Simple French Food, via one of my new favorite blogs, A Serious Bunburyist. There is no cream in this – it does not need it. But that butter at the end? C-est manifique!
Ingredients
- 2 quarts salted boiling water
- 1 pound potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, sliced (we used Yukon golds)
- 1 pound leeks, tough green parts removed, cleaned, finely sliced
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Olney has you add the vegetables to the salted boiling water and cook till the potatoes are soft and mashable. I was dying to saute those leeks up first in the butter and then add the water (or maybe chicken stock) and the potatoes, and then maybe a bouquet garni, but I really had no say in the matter as I was still at work when Mr TBTAM started cooking. By the time I arrived home, the leeks and potatoes were done, so I just got out the old immersion blender and went to town. Maybe someday I’ll try a fancier version, but this was pretty close to perfect as far as I’m concerned.
Serve hot or cold with a generous sprinkling of sea salt and pepper to finish.
