A Warming Lunch - Leek and Potato Soup

I always find that lunch is a bit of a silly meal... I think that's why I prefer to go out for lunch rather than dinner, because then I won't have any issues choosing what to eat. I often end up reverting to simple things like pasta and pesto, cheese on toast or a plain salad.

Or, when winter comes, I love a bowl of hot soup. However, I'm a bit more fussy than 6 year old me nowadays and a time of Heinz tomato soup just doesn't quite cut it, so I end up paying more for fresh soup, like Covent Garden in their cute cartons. The best way to avoid that? Make it yourself! I generally do half measures of the recipe below, I'm low on Tupperware for freezing quantities!

Homemade Leek & Potato Soup

Leek and Potato Soup (serves 6)

• 1 onion
• 3 leeks
• 2 or 3 potatoes (it depends if they're really massive or not!)
• 1 litre hot water
• 1 chicken stock cube (yes, you can use vegetable but this gives it a bit more flavour)
• Salt & pepper, to taste. That means as much as you want (I like this soup rather salty)

Prepping the veg

1. Finely chop the onion and leeks, rinse them well and fry them in a large saucepan in a bit of hot oil.
2. Fry them off for 5 minutes, until the onions go clear.
3. Add the chopped potato - I do this in small cubes, so they're bite sized if I miss any when blending. Peeled or not, it depends on whether I can be bothered with a peeler - potato skin is good for you right?
4. Leave them to sweat in the saucepan with the lid on for 10/15 minutes.
5. Add boiled water with the stock cube crumbled up and mixed in, and grind in some salt and pepper. 
6. Put the lid back on and leave to summer for half an hour.
7. Take it off the heat, let it cool a little, and crack out the hand blender. Whizz it up so there are no leek strips left (I don't like them! Occasional bits of potato are fine though)

Bubbling away

Serve it hot, preferably with some bread. Yesterday my bread was freshly baked - I was beyond content!!

Fresh out of the bread machine

Enjoy!