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Yesterday I cleaned up the remains from one of the raised beds and netted several nice bunches of leeks and some really woody celery.
On hand in the kitchen I had a giant purple onion waiting for something but I couldn’t remember what. A few other ingredients from the fridge and presto, leek soup.
- 1 nice bunch of leeks
- 1 large purple onion
- 3 tablespoons of chopped parsley
- Butter
- Olive oil
- 4 cups chicken stock / bone broth
- Celery
- Celery root
- Minced garlic
- Sea salt to taste
- Organic corn chips, or french bread or toast
- Cheese – I used some cheddary raw goat cheese
I took the most woody bits of the celery, the celery root, and the parsley stems, chopped them up and boiled them down in a separate pot. You can get some amazing flavor out of celery root, and larger roots are fantastic for juicing.
Clean and prep the onions, leeks, celery stalk, garlic and parsley. Cut all the pieces into chunks about an inch long, and leave some of the onion in long strips like onion rings. Melt some butter in your soup pot and add in all this goodness, lightly browning all the bits.
After browning, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and mix everything up, then cover the pot and reduce heat for about 10-15 minutes to sweat the onions. It doesn’t take very long, so be careful not to burn them.
Next, take the liquid from the celery root pot, strain, and add to the soup pot. Add the chicken stock and a couple of cups of water. At this point, your large soup pot should be about halfway full. Simmer the soup until the vegetables are soft, salting to taste.
Next time I’ll add some potatoes and maybe some shredded chicken. Some of my favorite soup is made with homemade chicken stock – in fact it’s the base for most of the soups we make. Time permitting, it’s worth it. I served our leek soup in a bowl, over the top of corn chips, and finished with a liberal layer of shredded cheese on top.
To drink, we had some of the chilled, very dry apple cider, which was a bit like a nice, light white wine with a hint of apple.
What are your thoughts? Comment below and share this recipe!
This article (Easy Leek Soup) is free and open source. It may be reprinted with permission under this Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, with attribution to Brad Rowland and Highlyuncivilized.com. January 29th, 2012.
I have only tried to make a leek soup once and it truly tasted like grass to me. I didn’t like it. I keep thinking I should try it again though. We did have homemade chicken soup last night though and I agree with you about the stock. Nothing tastes better than homemade chicken stock in soup.
interesting- i haven’t had that experience with my leeks but i only use the larger leeks, and i leave only about 4″ of the green top. i wonder if the grassy taste is coming from the tops the same way that too many of the green leaves can wreck celery taste?
I wonder how old the leeks were?
Also for me, I usually have to use a good amount of salt, not Mortons’s, in my veggie soups.
You’re right Mil – I did end up having to use a lot of sea salt. I’m making another batch today, and this time I’m boiling down some chicken stock and adding some potatoes.
That will use the last of the leeks, celery and parsley in the garden. I pulled it all out yesterday so I could finish converting the other beds to hugelkultur. Two down and one to go.
Glad you didn’t get freaked out about the salt. Doesn’t it bring up the flavors?
Keep on talking about the hugelkultur; I love it. Where are you getting the logs from?
I love homemade leek and potato soup, it’s thicker so a bit more hearty, can be served hot or cold, but I think your version looks really appetising! I also like your suggestion of boiling down the roots and stems
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