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spicy leek and potato soup

As you know one of my favorite things in the world is soup. One of my newest faves is an easy spin on leek and potato soup. I’m working on adding more veggies to my diet and having meatless meals more often, and this soup does both with making me feel deprived. It’s not really low calorie, but any broth based soup that fills you up is going to be lower calorie than most meaty meals anyway.

This one is super easy, and it’s a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. If you don’t want to make mashed potatoes just for this, you can use a small package of instant. Keep in mind I’m not so perfect with the measurements. More or less any of these ingredients won’t make much difference. Sweat your onions, not the small stuff.

• 3 medium leeks, cleaned and julienned
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• about 1 cup mashed potatoes, or use equivalent instant
• 36-48 oz can chicken broth (less if you use real mashed potatoes, more if you use instant)
• 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
• Salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup any cream (optional)

I like my onions pretty well cooked (crunchy onions in soup = ewww!) so start sweating your onions in the butter or olive oil first. Don’t brown them, just make them translucent.

While those cook you can prep your leeks. I like to split them down the middle and finely julienne them so I have fairly small pieces. Then I put them in a big pot of water to soak. The leeks will float and the dirt that is always caught in them will fall to the bottom. Once they are clean just skim the leeks right off the surface of the water and put them in with your onions to cook down.

When the leeks and onions are both translucent you can add your broth, potatoes, and spices. If you like your soup a little creamier you can add some half and half or whatever you have on hand. Simmer for a few minutes, and it’s ready.

Note: I like my soup pretty spicy so I add about 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne, but you can skip that if you don’t want it hot.

Let me know if you try it! I’m going to have my leftovers right now…

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