I dont have a picture cause its like literally just vaguely greenish beige slop so its not the most photogenic, but this shit is great and easy.
Just like grab a leek and slice it up, then like half a kilo or maybe a bit more of potatoes(1.1-1.3 god blessed american pounds), you can add other shit like a couple stalks of celery if you want cause this is an anything goes kinda soup. Sometimes I use garlic but it usually doesn't provide that much flavor so I guess you'd have to use a ton for it to matter that much.
Fry the leek and whatever else you're using besides the potatoes for a little bit in some oil until you're happy with how fried they are I guess, in with the potatoes and a litre of water(about a quart I think?) plus 2 vegetable stock cubes if you use those, I usually put thyme in as well but theres probably other herbs that work.
Boil until the potatoes are cooked through and just blend it smooth with either a standing blender or an immersion blender. Most recipes call for cream at this point, I've tried it once with a vegan cream and that worked well but its probably not that necessary to have any kind of cream at all at this point frankly. I've seen recipes call for specific more creamy potatoes but Im dumb and dont know shit about different potatoes.
What is necessary IMO though that I dont usually see in recipes for this, is a glug of white vinegar or some other acidic thing to break through the richness of the potatoes and leek, keep it at a simmer and just add a bit at a time and let it fully incorporate while tasting for the desired level of acidity + salt and pepper. Its a total game changer for me cause otherwise the soup is kinda bland and you need some topping to kinda mix it up, but with the vinegar acidity it becomes a soup thats great all on its own. Having some bread or crutons with it is great too for some texture variety.
This is how I make it too. I make sure to cook my leeks in vegan butter until they are brown so the flavour of them really pops.
Yes, this shit is good! Definitely second the vinegar tip, I usually use Apple cider vinegar cause I like the taste and hint of sweetness, but any acidity will work wonders, even just some lemon juice. I usually do a 'classic' soup base of oil, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and let that all fry up for like 5 min as a step 0 before doing all the other stuff.
I also like having some kinda texture to the soup; just gettin some bread for dipping is indeed good, but any kinda veg like peas or corn works too. Even more potato can work; cube them, and oven roast them at the same time with just oil and spepper at like 400 for 30 min, and get some crispy bois in there.
As another niche tip, Zucchini also works as a soup base on its own or alongside potatoes, and I'm in that area where, come fall, there's tons of zucchini being passed around for free as it grows too much all at once lol. Its less dense than potato, and more creamy; cream of zucchini soup does feel like it has full fat dairy cream in it, despite being vegan!
Can I leave the potato a little lumpy? I like the lumps. Does this break things somehow? Add pepper and salt.
Re: potatoes. You're not dumb. People really do put a lot of emphasis between waxy (small - usually red or colored) variants and starchy (basically russet) types. I guess there is a slight textural difference but it's mostly indiscernible, especially when it comes to the flavor profile.
I think it probably makes a difference for if you're doing it without cream cause then theres just the texture from the potatoes, but also the best part of this is that usually I have potatoes at home already so the only thing that needs to be bought on a short notice is a single leek so theres no need to be carrying home a bunch of shit from the store if you're already tired.
That speaks to the greater problem with food preparation: online food enthusiasts assume you're either cooking for 20 people, or have nothing better to do than source a shit ton of ingredients for one dish you plan on eating for the next 2-3 weeks. But then again for those of us who only cook for a small amount of people, only have a certain amount of time, and/or already have some shit laying around the pantry - sometimes it can be fun and challenging to take a concept and make it work within your limitations.
Yeah, the enthusiast problem is real. They'll call for specialist gadgets that you don't have, use ingredients that will just sit around in your pantry for the next 2 years until you throw them out, assume you constantly cook like they do so just drain that fat and store it in the fridge until you use it tomorrow in another dish. I once tried to make a recipe that called for a teaspoon of mirin, whatever the fuck that is. I mean, a teaspoon, is the recipe really going to miss it?
mirin is a (slightly) sweet lower-alcohol rice wine used mostly in Japanese cooking, but at least it's just a shelf-stable bottle and not something that goes bad right away
That's not the point. The point is that this recipe either expects I have it on hand, or will trot out to Whole Foods to pay $12 for a bottle of it, after which I will never use it again. They do this all the time, this is just one incident I happened to remember.
after which I will never use it again
well then find another recipe that uses it
Garlic:
Yes use more
Also cook it with the leek, or roast the bulb and squeeze out the buttery roasted cloves
Garlic confit works just as well, with the added bonus of having something to spread on toasted baguette.
Cream just makes it richer. That's good if the soup is bland.
The soup recipes I follow use a squirt of lemon juice, right at the end before it's served. I tried it with and without and it goes give it that extra little zing. The soup doesn't taste lemony, it just tastes more intense.
