Jan 15, 2025 —
With winter in full swing, we’ve got a recipe for a cozy French classic: potato leek soup.
Chef Curtiss Hemm shares a new recipe with us every month using as many local ingredients as possible. Hemm is the founder of the Carriage House Cooking School in Peru, outside of Plattsburgh and the executive chef at The View restaurant at the Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid.
Hemm told Northern Light co-hosts Monica Sandreczki and Catherine Wheeler that this recipe hits the spot after a day on the slopes.
Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Monica SandreczkiA cozy French classic recipe for potato leek soup, perfect for an après-ski
Chef Curtiss Hemm’s potato leek soup. Photo: Curtiss Hemm.
CURTISS HEMM: It’s an apres-ski, a wood stove type of soup. It’s super easy. It’s a meal prep soup and versatile, as well.
But this is, for me, such a classic French dish. Having lived over in France for a couple years, it connects me to a really great time in life.
CATHERINE WHEELER: Before we jump into the recipe itself, I think we should take a step back. How do you clean, prepare and chop the leeks to get them ready for the soup?
HEMM: That’s always a question!
Leeks are one of my favorite onions. They have an amazing flavor; and, the flavor comes from being trenched.
What I mean by “trenched” is: picture a “V” in the ground, like you took a hoe and you pulled it on a diagonal and you created this little ditch. The leek seedlings go in there and then they backfill the dirt around that seedling. That’s how you get the white parts. It’s the same thing with cauliflower, where they pull the leaves off and blanch it, so it doesn’t go through photosynthesis. So, you don’t have a large amount of chlorophyll in that bottom part of the leek.
What I do is trim off any of the long roots on the bottom and then I split that leek in half, lengthwise. Then, I just run it under cold water. Most often, the white part doesn’t have dirt in it. It’s really where the first seam appears on the stalk of the leek that you start to have the presence of dirt because the leek grows from the center and upwards and outwards, so it pushes the dirt out that’s in there. Very rarely will you find dirt in the very bottom white part of the leek. It’s always where the white meets the green. If it’s really dark green, I don’t use those at all. I don’t use that part of the leek. I want to focus on the pale green and the white part.
Just give it a little brush and just shake it underwater and use your thumb and clean out the dirt. You get 99% of it out. It’s a plant growing in the in the ground. Get a little speck of dirt here or there. It’s supposed to be good for you.
WHEELER: This recipe calls for both potatoes and cream, and I think the joy of this recipe, is that it’s very simple and has those classic flavors. What ingredients in this help those simple ingredients pop?
HEMM: The herb bundle is essential: you’ve got thyme. You’ve got sage. You’ve got parsley. We call this a “bouquet garni,” where you tie it up and the essence of those herbs is going to come out through the long, slow cooking of the soup. That gives an herbaceous background.
The type of potatoes you use determines the flavour (I almost always use Yukon Gold for this soup) and the leek. I’m a big fan of Giant Musselburgh leek, which is a more rounded, long, straighter leek.
The stock is gonna make a big difference. If you want kind of an umami-esque piece with a little meat flavor, the chicken broth; if you want to use a mushroom broth or vegetable broth for this, you can. That’ll change the flavor slightly, but really it’s the leek and the potato that are the stars.
MONICA SANDRECZKI: What are some good variations on this recipe that you’d suggest? Initially, we were talking [about] sausage or Croghan bologna, but that would probably overpower some of those flavors, I’d guess?
HEMM: I always use the psychology of menus. If I say “potato leek soup with crispy Croghan bologna,” the thing that you’re going to want is potato and leek flavor first, and then the bologna is going to accent that. There is a weighted way that we understand food as it’s written in words in terms of how it connects to our subconscious and our expectation. I’m very cautious about how I write those things.
But, you could add all sorts of things to this. You could add crispy bread crumbs cooked in butter with parsley and thyme chopped up on there. You want to watch things that are going to overpower the subtlety of the potato, leek and the cream. That’s always a balancing point.
We make a sweet potato potage at the Inn, and I put chorizo on it. And, I love that because it’s a little bit of spice, but it’s not more than two teaspoons of chorizo crumble crisped up from Harmony Hills. It adds texture and flavor.
You could put in an herb oil. That would be really nice and vibrant against that light green soup.
You could do a chili oil, which would give a little bit of heat.
Even some flaked salmon that’s leftover and roasted would be a fantastic addition to the soup.
WHEELER: You’re speaking our language with those suggestions. Ironically, the NCPR holiday party theme was “soup and accompaniments” and…
HEMM: See? I should have gone!
WHEELER: Uh, yes! Absolutely! What is a good side for this soup? We know you love crusty bread.
HEMM: I like crusty bread. I love greens. I like the pepperiness of arugala. I think it would go great with this soup. I think a crusty bread with really good butter. Crown Point Dairy has amazing local butter. I absolutely love their stuff. It’s so fantastic.
What else? A good little apple salad would be great.
A nice little plain French omelet with fleur de sel salt on top would be a fantastic addition to this.
SANDRECZKI: As far as pairings goes, for beverages, do you need a wine that’s a bit more acidic to cut through the cream and potatoes like a Chenin Blanc?
HEMM: You can do Chenin Blanc. You could do a Pét-nat; Buttonwood Grove Winery in the Finger Lakes has a really good Pét-nat. They’ve got both Riesling and Cab Franc – I think that would be good. Prosecco would be great with this, a dry Riesling. I wouldn’t go sweet. Even a glass of sherry would be good.
A beer is going to go great with this soup. If you’re talking ski season, and getting some carbs to replenish what you burned on the slopes a fantastic beer would be great.
SANDRECZKI: Is there a certain kind?
HEMM: I wouldn’t go too heavy on the IPA factor. I like Fiddlehead a lot. Switchback is a beer that’s brewed, not in style, but in flavor. Locally, I like stuff from Oval Craft Brewing here in Plattsburgh. They’ve got some wonderful stuff. I like a lighter beer, so a lager or a Pilsner for me.
SANDRECZKI: In the time we have left, could you briefly walk us through this recipe?
HEMM: It’s really simple. Get a 4-quart pot. Soften your leeks for a bit. You’re not going to try to caramelize them. You don’t want to have that flavor. You just want the sweetness of the leek itself. Once those are softened a bit and a little bit translucent, you’re going to add your diced potatoes. You’re going to coat that in the butter. Then, you’re going to add your stock, your herbs. I would put a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper in at this point.
Just simmer until the potatoes are fork tender or skewer tender, which means that the skewer of the fork goes into the potato with zero resistance. That means the potato is fully gelatinized from the chicken stock, meaning that the structure of it is soft and ready to blend.
At that point, you can either add the cream. Or, you can take that directly to a blender and puree it, and then add the cream after pureeing it. If you’re going to eat it right away, that’s how I would do it because it cools it off a little bit, so you don’t burn your tongue. I am notorious for burning my mouth because I can’t wait for food!
Potato Leek Soup
2 large leeks
4 tablespoons butter
2 pounds potatoes, cubed
6 cups chicken stock
1 small bundle herbs (parsley, thyme, sage, etc)
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1. Combine the leeks and butter in a large soup pot set over medium heat. Cook until the leeks are soft and fairly translucent.
2. Add the potatoes and mix well to coat them in the leeks and butter. Cook for a couple of minutes then add the chicken stock and the bundle of herbs then stir to combine. Bring the pot to a hard simmer then reduce the heat to medium low and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.
3. When the potatoes are tender remove the bundle of herbs and discard. Remove a small amount of the cooked leeks and reserve for use as a garnish.
4. Using either an immersion style blender or a blender puree the soup until smooth. Add in the salt and pepper and check for seasoning.
5. Add the cream to the soup and allow to sit for a few minutes to heat up.
6. Serve by ladling soup into bowls and topping with a spoonful of the reserved cooked leeks.