Leek, Onion and Potato Soup
– New recipe/How to Cheat

This is my most favourite soup in the world and now we can buy extremely good mashed potato frozen it means we can be a little bit more spontaneous about the whole process of soup making. Potato ready-mashed with stock added makes an excellent backdrop to other ingredients, spinach for instance or watercress, but as I said leeks are my top of the pops in soups. Yes I know we cheats can all easily buy ready-made soup from supermarkets but, why oh why do they never get it quite right? Probably has something to do with a very boring subject called shelf life!

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 large leeks
1 medium onion, chopped small
175 g (7 discs) McCain frozen Simply Mash
1 oz (25 g) butter
11/2 pints (850 ml) stock, made up from Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon powder
10 fl oz (275 ml) milk
salt and freshly milled black pepper

To serve:

1 tablespoon crème fraiche or double cream
11/2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives or chopped fresh parsley

To prepare leeks, first take off the tough outer leaves and trim off most of the very green part. Now, using a sharp knife, place the leek on a flat surface and make an incision vertically about halfway down (because of the intricate layers, there can be dust and grit trapped in-between, usually in the upper part). Now turn on the cold tap and fan out the layers of leek to rinse them through and rid them of any hidden dirt. Then slice them in one inch slices.

Now in a large, thick-based saucepan, gently melt the butter, then add the leeks and onions, stirring them all round with a wooden spoon so they get a nice coating of butter. Season with salt and pepper, then cover and let the vegetables sweat over a very low heat for about 15 minutes.

After that, add the stock, milk and the frozen mashed potatoes. Stir well and when it reaches a gentle simmer, cover and cook gently for a further 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and the mash has thoroughly defrosted – don’t have the heat too high as the milk can boil over. Now put the whole lot into a blender – leave it to cool a little first – and blend to a purée. If you have to blend the soup in batches, make sure you have a bowl to hand to put the first batch into.

Now return the soup to the saucepan and reheat gently, tasting to check the seasoning. Before serving sprinkle with freshly snipped chives or parsley and add a swirl of crème fraiche.

This recipe first appeared in You magazine.

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