What’s so special about this soup in particular?
Vegan leek & potato soup is of course an old favourite or might one say stalwart of the veggie/vegan scene. Anyway, it’s warming and nutritious – especially in the depths of winter. Some would say bland – but I would say they’re doing it wrongly….. This soup is earthy and rich when made well. The addition of a few petit pois is my novel addition.
Why this particular recipe right now in the year?
The inspiration to make it at this time was that I had quite a few baked potatoes left over after a recent firework night party. We ate several reheated, but there were quite a few! So I decided the rest could be incorporated into some leek & potato soup. Slightly unconventional I know – but a great way to use up those veggies with no waste. Make sure you have enough onions, a few carrots, some herbs, and of course stock cubes and it will taste great. It’s especially nice with crusty wholemeal bread – I generally like to have it with my sourdough wholemeal. Of course leeks are an autumnal vegetable so it’s a great time to make this soup unless you want to pay a premium for out of season veggies!
Careful preparation of the veggies can be a pain – but is essential
Be sure to remove all dirt from the leeks – so cut them up first & thoroughly wash like this. Trim the ends, slice down the middle, and cut into one inch lengths. Run some warmish water and soak them to remove the dirt – agitating and draining them at least twice. Roughly cut the onions and start sauteeing them in the pan – adding the leeks when they’ve been thoroughly washed. Saute the carrots in a little olive oil in a separate pan or actifry is easiest. I think that baking the potatoes is in fact a great way to cook them. Use a nice low heat – then slice and add to the pan. Cook them when you’ve got the oven on medium or low for another dish. Add in your herbs as the leeks and onions are sautéing.
Getting the veggies sufficiently cooked – but not over done!
Make sure to check all the veggies are cooked – fishing a few out and tasting them is the best way. If they’re nicely cooked a stick blender to chop it all up works much better than putting a huge quantity through a food processor. Any you miss just adds to the texture. Definitely keep some of the veggies back anyway to add in after blending to give better mouthfeel for your Leek & potato soup. Adding in some cooked petit pois makes for a bit of garnish that elevates the soup, & provides some colour. They also add some useful protein to this vegan leek & potato soup.
Vegan Leek & Potato Soup
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- First step is trim both ends of the leeks and slice in half for the full length of the leek. Immerse in plenty of cold water - in the sink is easiest if you have 2 sinks. Give them a really good stir and do this regularly whilst prepping the onions and garlic
- chop the onions reasonably finely and add to a large pan with some cold pressed olive, hemp, flax or rapeseed oil on a low heat. We're going to sweat them not fry/brown them.
- peel and blitz or crush the garlic and add to the pan stirring fairly frequently. If they're starting to stick you can add a tablespoon or so of water if necessary.
- Begin scrubbing the potatoes and then dice them into 1 cm cubes. Although we're blitzing quite a bit of it, chopping them to 1cm size means the unblitzed will be the right size. Ditto with the leeks. Add to the pan.
- In between, drain the leeks and add to the pan.
- scrub the carrots thoroughly and cut out any of the folds that are filled with soil - depending on the variety, this can be very little or quite a lot. Gritty, dirt is not pleasant in a soup & whilst I don't advocate for peeling veggies wholesale, with carrots you do want to get all of the dirt of and peeling those bits is really the only way. When clean, cut in half lengthways, and then cut in irregular pieces and add to the pan.
- separate the celery stalks and wash individually and trim the root end, and then chop finely into half cm pieces. Towards the root end cut them lengthways to keep the final pieces relatively small. Add them to the pan.
- Once all the veggies are in the pan - you can turn the heat up just a fraction, but make sure there's enough oil, and a little water to prevent sticking. Give them around 15 to 20 minutes sweating. At this point add in the herbs and black pepper etc so it melds with the other flavours.
- when the veggies have settled and softened a bit add in the almond or oat milk, and bring to a very low simmer, just a few bubbles rising to the surface. It will need frequent stirring to make sure it doesn't stick on the bottom.
- check the veggies every so often and when they are soft enough (not falling apart) remove around a 1/3 of the mixture and set aside. Then use a stick blender to make a fairly smooth, but not overly so, soup. At this point, you can add the reserved veggies back into the pan and season to taste with black pepper. Generally I don't add salt - but this would be the time to add it you do.
- Shortly before this point, cook the petit pois in bulk, and add to the individual portions to ensure a consistent quantity. If you don't do this, then they sink to the bottom and the distribution is very uneven. I've calculated the peas to be enough for 50g per container. This is optional (as is everything) but is around the right level for a 325g serving
