Simple, Hearty, Delicious Leek and Mushroom Soup

Oh boy oh boy. I have leftovers of this soup for lunch today and I’m so excited. Equally excited that I get to share this with you. This soup is so simple yet still one of the most warming, flavourful soups I’ve ever had. I may or may not have had four bowls of it for dinner last night. You can’t prove anything!!

The beauty of this is, even though I’ve written quantities for everything, it’s all totally a matter of taste. Or in my case, it’s entirely dependent on how much of any given thing I fancy and happen to have in the kitchen.

Anyway. Start with peeling and cubing two large white potatoes. Really I just use the standard “white” that you get at the supermarket, as it’s going to get blended up in a bit anyway. But you can use whatever potatoes you have sitting around.

Dice up two large white/yellow onions as well. Then put the onions and potatoes into a pan and cover with just about enough water to cook them nicely, without being overly watery. We’re going to use this cooking water, and while it’s possible to add more water later, it’s not so easy to remove once you’ve blended the whole shebang. You can add some salt to the water too, if that’s what floats your boat. Stick the pan on a medium-high heat with the lid on.

While the onions and potatoes are cooking away, slice up the mushrooms. My dear ol’ Mumma V just uses plain closed-cup mushrooms in hers, but I like to be a rebellious wild-child, so I use a combination of closed-cup, chestnut and mini-portabella in mine. Mostly because these are easily available and not too expensive. I guess you could add something even more exotic but it might feel like a bit of a waste in a huge vat of soup.

As an aside, I, like Ree, also rinse all my mushrooms, and for this I don’t even bother patting them dry or any of that nonsense. The whole thing behind not rinsing mushrooms, is that they are like natures fungal sponges (spungals, if you will – but that sounds weird). Mushrooms already contain a lot of water and rinsing them only adds to that, and anyone who’s tried to fry mushrooms knows you have to let all that liquid cook out before they’re ready. But in this soup, obviously, that doesn’t matter.

Set the sliced mushrooms aside and slice up the leeks. Mmm, leeks. Slice ‘em up fairly thin now.

Ok, let’s check our boiling potato/onion situation. Are the potatoes fork-tender? Awesome. Take the pan off the heat, and don’t drain that water! Crank out your hand-blender and whizz the whole lot in the pan until it’s smooth. Doesn’t have to be totally smooth — if you want a more rustic feel you can leave some lumpy bits. In fact, if you want to go down that route, or if you don’t have a hand-blender, use a potato masher instead to mash up the ingredients in the pan.

Once you’ve got it to the consistency you want, stick the pan back on medium heat and add the chicken stock. Once it all starts boiling again, throw in the mushrooms. You might be alarmed at the sheer quantity of mushrooms, but they reduce in size drastically. Let this cook for about five minutes, then throw the leeks in.

Just writing this up is making me anticipate my lunch something crazy. And I just had two slices of toast. What is wrong with me?!

Ok, after another ten minutes or so, check on the soup. It’ll look a little dull but it’s ok. If the mushrooms and leeks are cooked, it’s time to add the finishing touches.

First, take two tablespoons of flour and add it to just a little water, enough to stir the flour up into a reasonably lump-free paste. Add this to the soup and let it cook for one to two minutes to thicken it.

Now folks, it’s time to get serious. Time to make peace with whatever dietary deity you worship (dietary deity, try saying that three times fast). Time to remove the pan from the heat, and add 1/2 to 1 cup of double cream. How much you add is a matter of taste/guilt. Stir it all up real nice. Mmm… Season with salt and pepper — keep tasting all the while you’re adding the salt, as this recipe, between the potatoes and mushrooms, really needs quite a bit of salt. But over-salt it and it’s a disaster.

Now just serve that bad boy up in whatever fancy soup bowls you like — in my case, it is the biggest receptacle of any kind that I own.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do! Shame I don’t have any photos but I was too busy eating the dang stuff to take any last night.