Brooklyn Brokavore

I don’t know how I’ve gotten through this much winter without sharing my leek and potato soup recipe. This is one of the quickest and easiest dishes I make, and, though the soup doesn’t look that beautiful, it has a hearty, satisfying taste. The recipe comes from my mom.

You need:

• 3 leeks
• 4 medium potatoes
• 4 cups of vegetable broth/ 4 cups of  water + bouillon (I prefer “Better than Bouillon”)
• 1/4 to 1 cup sour cream/yogurt/creme fraiche, depending on your taste
• salt and pepper
• a pinch of nutmeg (optional)
• a dash of white vinegar (optional)
• a dash of hot sauce (optional)

To prepare:

1. Peel the potatoes. Or, if you’re lazy like me and like eating potato skin, don’t peel the potatoes but instead scrub them and cut out any gross looking bits.
2. Cut the potatoes in roughly 1 inch cubes.
3. Wash the leeks carefully. If you’ve never cooked with leeks before, you’ll notice that they tend to have dirt up in their crevices. You seriously need to wash that out unless you want your soup to have dirt texture. The best way to do that is to cut the leeks in half lengthwise and then rinse thoroughly. Cut off the dried out green leafy part (keeping some of the green if it looks ok), and slice the rest of the leek into 1/2 inch slices.
4. Put the potatoes and leeks in a large pot with the stock/water + bouillon.  Cover and boil for about 15 minutes or so, until the potatoes are so well done they break up when you try to run a fork through them.
5. Using a masher or immersion blender, mash the contents of the soup. You’re not going for uniformity, just trying to get rid of any big potato chunks.
6. Add the sour cream to your desired level of creaminess.
7. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
8. I like to add a dash of white vinegar (but you’ll want to add a tiny bit at time cause you really don’t want to overdo this), as well as nutmeg and hot sauce.