Vegan Creamy Potato Leek Soup
After the holidays, the rest of the winter always feels like a long haul for me. The excitement of holidays pass, friends and family return to their homes, but there’s still a lot of cold dark days to get through till spring. Even though it can be a downer, I try to find the time to enjoy it with warm food and good books. There’s less holiday cooking to celebrate but still lots of seasonal cooking to enjoy! After the rich foods of December I’m excited to eat some lighter food, that still warms me up. For all of these reasons, a hearty classic potato leek soup is my go-to this winter. I first realized the simple brilliance of potato leek at an Anabel’s Grocery community dinner, where our director showcased how easy and affordable cooking at home with high quality ingredients can be! This warm soup, a nice slice of bread and some fruit or salad on the side can be a wonderful and easy meal to prep and warm your belly in the winter.
What I love about this recipe is how it really uses only kitchen staples and fresh veggies that keep well throughout the winter. Leeks, onions and potatoes are all crops that are harvested in the fall and keep through the winter, which is the primary reason we want to showcase this recipe. It keeps well, and comes from vegetables that are truly seasonal in the winter! It is also effortlessly vegan because rather than using cream to thicken, the creaminess comes all from the blending at the end. It feels fresh and light but still warm and cozy for long winter months ahead.
This is a classic soup that I have made countless times before and is a classic in many households. You can find many potato leek recipes online, and I have pulled from countless over the years and compiled them to make this Grounded Grub version. We hope you’ll enjoy it!
Ingredients
2-3 large leeks: I buy organic when I can and look for them at the farmers market. Because they keep well throughout the winter you can often find them at winter markets depending on where you are and what is available in your region. Look for leeks with thick white stalks as you have to discard most of the big green tops.
1 half yellow onion: this could also be replaced with 1 tablespoon of onion powder or flakes, or even garlic powder for a slightly different flavor.
8-10 small russet potatoes: I love to keep these on hand throughout the winter in a cool dark drawer. Your soup
2 tablespoons oil: I usually use organic olive oil, but you could use anything similar like avocado that you have on hand. You can also substitute butter if you want to have a super creamy soup in the end.
4 cups broth: You can use any type of broth you’d like, I use my veggie scrap broth that I keep on hand, but you could also use chicken, beef or any other broth. If you’re buying broth, I recommend buying bullion cubes or other concentrated broth options to reduce the impacts of shipping and packaging.
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon black pepper
3 bay leaves: these are fantastic to add depth of flavor, but can be expensive, so I’ve made this soup many times without them and it still turned out delicious :)
1 tablespoon salt + more to taste: I add salt early on when sautéing the leeks, then add more later after blending to taste.
Hot Sauce Optional: I like my soup with a little kick so I dribble some hot sauce on top at the end. I usually stick to hot sauces from Latin America because I think the flavors blend really well.
Note: This recipe is vegan if you use oil rather than butter and vegetable stock rather than an animal broth. This is pretty self explanatory, but I just wanted to point it out if you choose to make those substitutions.
Preparation
Cut and clean leeks. Because of the way that leeks grow they can collect a lot of dirt inside their layers. Cleaning before cooking is essential to not end up with dirt in your soup! To clean, cut off the roots and slice the leeks lengthwise. Place in a large colander in your sink. Run cool water over them, working through the layers to make sure water rinses out the inside of each one. Keeping the layers nested inside each other, shake dry and move to a cutting board. Slice leeks in quarter inch pieces starting at the lighter end and working towards the dark green tops. You can use some of the lighter green portions but stop chopping once you get towards the dark parts. Discard the tops in compost or save for veggie scrap broth!
Chop onion and set aside.
Heat oil in the bottom of a large pot or saucepan. This pot should be large enough to hold all of your ingredients so place big early on!
Add chopped onion and saute on medium heat until the onion is beginning to become translucent. About 3 minutes. Note: If you’re using onion powder instead of a fresh onion, skip this step and add onion powder with the salt and pepper in the next step.
Add leeks, salt, pepper and thyme and saute with the onions on medium heat for 6 minutes.
While your leeks are cooking, rinse and peel your potatoes. You should make sure to clean well to get rid of all dirt, but don’t worry about being a perfectionist with the peeling. A bit of peel with add depth to the soup and will be blended in so you’ll never notice. Note: I do this while the leeks are cooking to save time. If you’re doing this recipe for the first time, sometimes it can be stressful to squeeze this step in while sauteing. You can also prep potatoes before starting cooking, I just like to multitask to cave time when I can!
After peeling, cut potatoes into inch chunks and set aside.
Add broth to the pot and bring heat to high. Add potato chunks and bay leaves. Bring the pot to a boil, then turn the heat to low.
Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until potatoes are soft and tender (can easily be stabbed with a fork!). This is when you could add more thyme, black pepper, or other spices as well!
After simmering, find and remove bay leaves and remove the pot from heat.
Using an immersion blender, or transferring in batches to a countertop blender, blend the soup until creamy and smooth. Some people choose to only blend 50% and leave chunks of potato and leek in their soup. I blend about 90% because I love the creaminess that comes from a good blending sesh. This is also where I taste and add any extra salt or pepper.
Add some hot sauce on top, if you dare! Serve hot with a slice of warm bread, cheese, crackers, fruit or salad! This soup also does really well reheated later in the week for a quick hearty meal.
Best Practices:
As always:
Avoid packaged produce, or really anything packaged for that matter. This is not to say that you’ll always have the option, but when you do, go for it! For example, potatoes are often sold in big pound bags, but can also be found loose in grocery stores as well. Try to bring your own produce bags or simply throw those onions in your cart and head to checkout!
Bring your own bags and store your food in reusable containers. Research how to best store vegetables and food safely so it’ll last longer and less will do to waste. Onions and potatoes don’t need to be refrigerated but should be stored in dark, cool areas, and separately from one another. If you store on the counter, they’ll sprout! Leeks should be stored in the fridge, but can last a long time in there!
Things like spices and oil can often be found in bulk sections of grocery stores if you have one in your area. This can sometimes help you save money as well as reducing packaging!
All of the scraps from this recipe would be wonderful additions to a veggie scrap broth, an easy practice that we can all use to make more of our food. They can also be composted if you have access to municipal compost or in your backyard! If you have the time and means, both practices are great ways to give your food scraps another life.
If you’re buying broth from the store, we encourage you to choose concentrated broth options. Our article about dry beans showcases some of concepts as to why dry goods help reduce impacts of shipment and packaging. Read about it here if you’re curious!
These ingredients have been chosen with seasonality in mind:
Most of these ingredients are household staples that are relatively inexpensive and last a long time. Leeks, onions and potatoes store well and are available year-round. Because of this, it’s likely they’ll be sourced more locally than other produce that might be out of season in a grocery store in the winter. Read about the importance of seasonality and locality in one of our foundational articles here.
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