Carlton Hall Farm chunky Leek and Potato Soup

Hearty, vegan with options.... Vegan - Vegetarian - Carnivore adaptable

Serve with Prosser's 'All in a bowl' Salad and warm bread

Below are Guesstimates as to quantities - I just put in what feels right for the numbers I'm catering for and when I made this soup it was in a 7 litre pot and I had 3x the amount of all the ingredients!

Rule of thumb: It's easier to put less in and add more, than to put more in and take some out! All herb and spice ingredients are approximate, don't be afraid to play around with flavours.

Carlton Hall Farm Leek and potato soup

Ingredients

Serves ? maybe 4-6?

• 3 large leeks

• 4 large potatoes

• 2 medium onions

• 1 - 2 cloves of garlic crushed or chopped

• A little coconut oil, or some other oil of choice for sweating the leeks.

• Approx 1-1/2 ltr of water, or to cover the vegetables. You can also use that amount of vegetable stock and leave out the cider vinegar.

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I tend not to use stock or stock cubes in my soups, so this helps with flavouring)

• Salt

• Pepper

• 1/2 tsp turmeric

• 1 tsp of sweet paprika

• 1/2 - 1tsp of smoked paprika

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 tsp of tarragon
  

Method

1. Melt coconut oil in a medium to large saucepan on a low medium, not high heat.

2. Peel and chop onions and garlic and add to pan. Place lid on the pan and allow to sweat on medium heat while you cut the leeks.

3. Half lengthways and slice leeks. Add to pan with salt, pepper, and the herbs and spices, minus the bay leaf. Sweat in pan with lid on while you chop the potatoes.

4. Wash and dice potatoes into small cubes. I leave skin on, but that is your preference. Set aside in a bowl.

5. Check leeks and onion mix is sweating down, releasing the sweet onion flavours and beginning to look a little transparent.

6. When leeks and onions look transparent and smell sweet, add the potatoes, and cook for about another 5-6 mins like this until everything is well mixed and warm.

7. Add the water, a half litre at a time, until you get the desired amount covering your veggies.

8. Add bay leaves and more salt and pepper, herbs etc to taste.

9. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 30-45 mins, or longer, until the potatoes are cooked and there is a creamy flavour. You could cook this is a slow cooker for two hours on high or 3 -4 hours on low.

Substitutes and/or additions:

1. You can use butter instead of oil.

2. You can use any herbs you like - Rosemary is a good one instead of Tarragon

3. If you want to make this a creamy soup, you can use a blender once the soup is cooked.

4. You can add half to a can of coconut milk and blend the soup to make a vegan cream of leek and potato.

5. You can add cream or milk and blend to make a non vegan cream of leek and potato.

6. This soup would go super well with some pancetta or bacon bits in it. Nom Nom