Souper easy Leek and Potato Soup
Isn’t it horrible the way that winter has that habit of slowly creeping up on you. It starts with the first christmas displays in late august which you dismiss as the false cheer of money grabbing chief execs fa-la-la ing at the thought of huge christmas bonuses. But then the weather gets suspicious dreary and soon you find yourself recovering from near pneumonia in front of Strictly Come Dancing of a Saturday night. And then the Bake Off ends and you know it’s happened. It has arrived. ( I would hate for everyone to think that my life is entirely dependent on TV, it’s not really I just love competition based shows on the BBC.)
Anyway as of this week Summer is actually, irrefutably over and winter is near so I have been making nice wintery food this week. Also, as expected I remain jobless and therefore penniless so am scrimping a bit on food. This Leek and Potato soup is a twist on a french onion soup that will really warm your cockles as the torrential rain sets in (just as a side note lost my umbrella last week just as the weather forecast switched to black clouds for the foreseeable future, great!). Back to the soup… it is simple and delicious and cheaper than any fresh soup you can get in the supermarket!
Leek and Potato Soup (serves 1)
- A clove of garlic
- One large onion
- 4 new potatoes
- One large or two small leeks
- One chicken or veg stock cube
- Some crusty bread
- Cheese (optional)
How to make it…
- Slice the onion and leek and finely dice the garlic. Add a dash of olive to a large saucepan. Add the garlic and fry for a few seconds before adding the onion and leek. Pop in a nob of butter, salt and pepper, put on the lid and leave on a low heat.
- Boil the kettle and add 1/2 a pint of boiling water to a jug along with the stock cube.
- Cube the new potatoes.
- Once the onions have sweated down, this will take around 10 minutes, add your stock. Also add your potatoes.
- Leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Serve with a hunk of crusty bread or a slice of cheese on toast (I stole this from a Jamie Oliver recipe for onion soup).
Cost Rating** I used: A leek costing 87p, an onion costing 18p, one clove of garlic from a bulb costing 30p, 1/6 of a packet of new potatoes costing £1.50, 1/10 of a packet of stock cubes costing 90p, 1/10 of a loaf of bread costing 80p, 1/10 of a block of cheese costing £3. Total cost: £1.80. (you could make it for £1.42 if you leave the cheese out)