Soup is the ultimate comfort food, and this year it feels we could all use a little extra comfort, a little gentleness and ease. So we slide into this edition of Winter Soup Club with a recipe for winter leek and potato soup courtesy of Darina Allen, founder of the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland. It is both easy and gentle, but it punches above its weight, offering pure flavor and technical tips within its few steps.
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So much of cooking is bombast and brute force: high heat, hard sear, crust and caramelization for flavor. This recipe is the opposite. The process is tender and quiet. Flavor is coaxed out of, not forced onto, the handful of ingredients. You’re not so much cooking this soup as you are gentling it into existence.
You’ll coat chopped vegetables in melted butter, then tuck them in under a lid cut from parchment paper to fit your pot. (It doesn’t have to be perfect. If you trace around the lid of the pot, then cut a little smaller than your outline, it should work. Then cut or poke a small hole in the center.) This helps keep everything evenly distributed and submerged, limiting evaporation and condensing flavor.
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Keep the heat on low. Your soup pot is now a sauna for your vegetables. They’re in for a gentle shvitz. You don’t want them to brown. You want them to relax, forget all their troubles, forget that you’re going to eat them… Shhh…
When they’ve softened, add stock you have boiling at the ready. (Homemade is best. From a box is great too.) It won’t take long for the whole pot to come to a boil; you’re pretty much already there. Simmer the vegetables just until they’re tender, preserving their freshness.
Now sleepy time is over. Blitz the heck out of everything in your blender and start tasting: Add as much salt and pepper as you find pleasing. You can stop now and call the soup done. It’s great as is.
Or, as the recipe suggests, add cream and/or milk to taste. Go slow and stop when you’re happy. I have made this recipe many times — for weeknight suppers with bread and butter, as a starter for elegant holiday meals — and never the same way twice. But I generally find I prefer to use 4 cups (a.k.a. one box) of stock, substitute half-and-half for heavy cream because that’s what we have on hand, and skip the milk altogether. This recipe, as the name indicates, puts the leeks first. Sometimes I add more potatoes. See what tastes best to you. It’s your soup, after all. You really can’t go wrong.
WINTER LEEK AND POTATO SOUP
Serves 6-8
INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 tablespoons salted butter
1 pound potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 small onion (4 ounces), peeled and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1 pound white parts of leeks, thinly sliced (about 4 1/2 to 5 cups)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 1/2 to 5 cups chicken stock, boiling
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream, or to taste, plus more for drizzling
2/3 cup whole milk, or to taste
Chives, chopped fine, for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Cut a circle out of parchment paper to fit inside the pot you want to use. The pot should be large, with a heavy bottom and a lid. (If you don’t have parchment paper, make the soup without it. It will still be delicious.)
2. In the pot, over low to medium-low heat, melt the butter. When it foams, add the potatoes, onion, and leeks. Turn them in the butter until they are well coated. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper, then toss again. Place the parchment paper directly on the vegetables, then put the lid on the pot.
3. Keeping the heat gentle, let the vegetables sweat until they are soft but not colored, about 10 minutes.
4. Discard the parchment. Add 3 1/2 cups of the boiling stock, return pot to a boil, then simmer until the vegetables are just cooked. Don’t overcook or the soup will lose its fresh flavor.
5. Using a blender or food processor, blend the soup until smooth and silky. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if necessary. Add cream and milk to taste. You may want to add extra stock if you prefer a thinner soup. Ladle into bowls and garnish each with a sprinkle of chives and a drizzle of cream, if you like. Adapted from Darina Allen, Ballymaloe Cookery School
RECIPE VARIATIONS
Serve the soup chunky rather than pureed.
Use the green parts of the leek as well as the white. The soup will have a stronger leek flavor. (Otherwise, reserve the green tops for another soup or vegetable stock.)
In the summer, serve chilled: vichyssoise!
For a vegetarian version, use vegetable stock instead of chicken. To make it vegan, use olive oil instead of butter and skip the cream and milk.
Did you make this soup? Send us an e-mail at wintersoupclub@globe.com to let us know how it turned out.
In this week’s newsletter: Sheryl Julian extols the virtues of red lentils and shares a nourishing, delicious recipe from her own kitchen.
Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @devrafirst.