HOMEMADE CREAMY POTATO & LEEK SOUP

This is perhaps one of my all-time favourite soups. It's up there with tomato (which I haven't actually made before but my Dad has a great recipe which I'm hoping to inherit one day!). And seeing as it's been so cold lately, I thought a really wholesome hot soup would be a good idea as my first recipe.

The beauty of this dish (besides the taste!) is that you can make it in your slow cooker/crock pot in the morning and forget all about it until dinner time. The preparation is minimal and the ingredients are simple and cheap. I would gladly make this every night of the week if it was just me living at home!

NB! This dish is not great on the fat content due to the cream but you could always use low-fat instead. Alternatively, if you want to be daring, you could use double cream instead of the single I have used in my recipe, this will give the soup a much creamier and yummy taste!

I hope you enjoy this soup. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions, they are both very welcome!

Happy playing!
Tanya xx

INGREDIENTS

250g leeks, roughly sliced (about 2 leeks as shown in above picture)
500g potatoes, roughly chopped (about 5 small-medium potatoes  as shown in above picture)
2 vegetable OXO cubes
700ml hot water (or enough to cover the vegetables)
75ml single cream
1 sachet of vegetable soup

METHOD

Add your sliced leeks and chopped potatoes to your slow cooker. Crush 2 OXO cubes into a jug with a little hot water and add to the vegetables. Pour the rest of the hot water over your leeks and potatoes until they are just covered. Turn your slow cooker onto HIGH and leave for 5-6 hours. It is always a good idea to check on your soup, especially after about 4 hours or cooking, to ensure that the water hasn't all been absorbed as this could cause your vegetables to stick to the bottom. If it has, just add a little bit of water to cover the vegetables again.

When your vegetables are ready (I.e. they are soft), it's time for the next step of preparation. Now would be a good time to put your baguettes in the oven if you are going to have them with your soup. In a jug, mix your vegetable soup sachet with enough hot water to ensure all the powder is absorbed and there are no clumps. Add this to the soup.

This next step depends on how chunky you like your soup. Either use a blender to make it smooth or a masher to keep the chunkiness of the potatoes - it's entirely up to you! Once you have blended/mashed the vegetables, add the cream and give it all one final stir.

Serve with a hot baguette and some parsley sprinkled on top to make it look pretty.

FINAL SAY

If your soup is too thick, you can always add more water to it. I do this with J's soup as he believes all soup should be runny! I would recommend however adding a little bit of water at a time and then tasting it as you don't want to lose the flavour by pouring in too much!

You can also add salt and pepper to the soup but make sure you taste it before you add any seasoning as the leek and soup powder sachet contain their own salts.

Finally, you can also serve this dish chilled which is known as Vichyssoises

Makes: 2 servings (this soup is really filling and coupled with half a baguette, J and I have very rarely had any space for seconds)

Nutritional information: 411kcal - 54g carbs - 17g fat - 10g protein - 10g sugar - 275mg sodium