Hope everyone had a great week and is recovering from some rowdy St. Patrick’s celebrations! After making that delicious loaf of Irish Beer Bread, I realized it needed to be dunked in something. Here’s a warm, comforting, healthy recipe for potato leek soup (another Irish dish) I whipped up to help us eat some of the bread. It turned out being a great combo, I would highly suggest making both!! I was experimenting and used some hemp milk in this recipe, but it has a slightly sweet taste (even the unsweetened version) so I would go with almond milk next time. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
2 TBS EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
3 stalks celery; diced
2 leeks; diced
1 small yellow onion; diced
2 cloves garlic; minced
6 small organic potatoes; peeled & chopped
2 cups vegetable stock
2 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 cups hemp milk (or almond/soy milk)
1/2 tsp dried dill
2 TBS fresh parsley; finely chopped
First prep your veggies by slicing and dicing. For the leeks, chop off the white end, but then also chop off all the dark green ends. You’ll be left with the middle section that will be about 3-6 inches long. Slice this in half and then split apart and rinse really well, there is a lot of dirt that gets trapped inside – get it out!! When it’s ready to dice, you can cut it in half lengthwise again and then dice sideways.
When the veggies are ready, heat the olive oil in a large soup pot on medium heat. Add the onion, leeks and garlic and sauté until the veggies are softened, about 5-7 minutes or so.
Next add the veggie stock, water, potatoes, salt, pepper & thyme. Stir well and bring to a rapid boil, then lower the heat and simmer on medium for 30 minutes or more, until the potatoes are soft enough to pierce very easily with a fork.
When the potatoes have softened, stir in the hemp milk, dill and half of the parsley and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
You could puree the soup, or just leave it chunky. Serve with another sprinkle of fresh parsley, some red pepper flakes (optional) and some Irish Beer Bread!!
