It was a cold week in Pennsylvania. We were supposed to get snow Monday night but only got some flurries. But now a nor’easter is coming today, and we might get 8 to 12 inches between Sunday night and Monday evening. So it’s a perfect week to warm up with the bowl of comfort food! Potato Leek soup is delicious and nutritious. Both Wales and Ireland claim this classic soup as their national dish. The Scottish have their own version called “Tattie and Leek,” and the French are famous for their version, called vichyssoise, associated with Vichy, France, and the French Vichy regime. Whatever the origin, it’s delicious. It was Ginger’s idea to make this soup, and since I’ve made it before, she was the executive chef and I was her sous chef.

When we traveled to Ireland in 2019, we were served brown bread with almost every meal. Since this soup, and many soups, are better with bread dunker, I decided to give it a try. I ordered Irish flour from King Arthur, and used their recipe. The rest of the ingredients were all in my cubbord, and it didn’t require yeast, happy happy joy joy. I’m not a yeastaphobe, but the breads I bake with yeast are hit or miss. There’s debate over how to make Irish brown bread the “right” way. Many Irish bakers claim that if Irish brown bread is not made with Irish flour, (even if it is stoneground whole wheat) then it will not be as good. The other interesting part about this bread is that you can have a dense, chewy, satisfying loaf in under an hour. I will give it a try again, but it wasn’t as pretty as the picture and I wish it was a little less dense.

Potato leek soup is simple to make, but first you have to deal with the leeks. They’re notoriously sandy and dirty, and very good at hiding it, so you need to wash them well. Start by cutting off and discarding the root ends and thick dark green parts. Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and rinse each half under cold water, pulling apart the layers to remove any grit that’s tucked inside. Everything else was pretty easy, just took time.

Overall the soup was delicious. With the cold weather and snow coming, we made a decision to double the recipe figuring we’d eat it for a few days. Mom used turkey broth which she has an abundance of in the freezer. At first it looked a little chunky but it worked out well. After everything was done cooking it required us to use a blender to purée the soup.

We attempted to purée it in a blender, but had a little accident – see photo below. We switched to an immersion blender, which worked out pretty well. It didn’t need any more seasoning than what the recipe instructed.

What I make this recipe again? Yes, that’s it easy answer. Took a little longer than we wanted to to prep it does require a decent amount of prep work. But quite delicious

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