As we march, rushing headlong, towards winter and trees begin to shed their leaves, which fall into the cold wind’s icy grip, soups will become an increasingly important part of your diet. Both warming and filling, a potato-based soup is certainly one of the easiest and cheapest meals you can make. Once again, you will require a hand blender to make this recipe, since chunky soups just don’t cut it here at Cherwell.
Ingredients:
1 large leek, sliced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 stock cubes
Enough water to cover all the above (depends on pan and potato size)
Generous helpings of butter
Paprika, cumin, salt and pepper for taste
Fry the onion, leek, celery and garlic in butter until the onions have turned translucent. Take this pan off the heat and boil the pan of water before adding the potatoes. I do not normally waste the skin – I peel the potatoes and then fry the skin with the onions and celery, but this is totally optional. Add the buttery veg and the stock cubes, along with the spices and salt and pepper. After about 20-25 minutes, the potatoes should be soft – the key here is to pierce a large piece of potato with a knife. If the knife goes through as if it were cutting butter, then the potato is ready. If not, then boil for a few more minutes. Once the potato is boiled, take off the heat and leave for about ten minutes. Once slightly cooler, the soup is ready for the blitzer. At first use the lower setting so that you don’t get scalded! Keep blitzing until the soup has become much thicker and a uniform light green colour. At this point, it is ready to eat. However, I find the addition of some single cream or crème fraîche makes the soup much more palatable and removes the slightly insipid celery flavour which accompanies its necessary inclusion in this recipe.
