Welcome to another edition of Sarah’s Sunday Dinners!  Thanks to my husband for the title of today’s post, which consists of a delicious potato-leek soup.

If you search Google for potato leek soup there are 449,000 results returned, so suffice it to say, there are many different variations of this recipe.  Some with cream, some without, some with bacon, some with spices.  Having never had leeks before, and having never made soup before, I went with the most simple recipe available from The Kitchn.

Ingredients:

approx 5 cups of peeled and cubed potatoes (I used Yukons)

approx 2 1/2 cups chopped leeks (I used one good sized bunch)

3-4 slices bacon, diced (you can leave out the bacon, and use your preferred oil instead.  Skip to step 2)

approx 1 quart (1 litre) of stock or water

Tip about leeks: They are very dirty.  I chopped the white and light green parts, and put them into a strainer set in a bowl of water.  I swished them around in the bowl/strainer, and then took out the strainer and ran water through the leeks.

Step 1.

Brown bacon in a large stock pot until crispy, remove and drain on paper towel

Step 2.

Add the leeks to the pan with the hot bacon fat (or oil) and cook until wilted and somewhat translucent

Step 3.

Add the potatoes and stir to coat.

Step 4.

Add the stock or water to cover the mix (it took about 1 litre)  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until the potatoes are cooked (about 20-30 minutes. )

Step 5.

Remove the pan from the heat, and use an immersion blender* to blend this:

into this:

Step 6. (optional)

Garnish with some of the crumbled bacon and a bit of shredded cheese.

This soup will make your house smell like thanksgiving! When the leeks are cooking, they give off kind of an oniony/delicious smell, and when everything is cooking together you would think you have a turkey with all of the trimmings in the oven!  This soup is very inexpensive to make, cooks in 1 pot, and serves about 4.  Yum Yum Yum!!

First attempt at soup = Major Win!!!

*Using an immersion blender is easiest, because you can do it right in the pot.  If you don’t have one, you can scoop the soup into a blender or food processor about 1 cup at a time and blend it that way.

So what’s your favourite soup to make? to eat?