This is a recipe review, which means this is a recipe that I did not personally come up with, but that I tried out and am giving my opinion on how the recipe turned out. For legal reasons I cannot post these recipes, but I can tell you where you can get them yourself.
There are many things that I passed in the grocery aisles for years, before I started to learn to cook. Many green item I did not consider in the produce section such as cabbage, kale, collard greens, and the leek. The leek came off this list, when I saw Alton Brown in the episode “Sprung a Leek” use them in making a potato soup. Below is my notes from making this soup.
Click here to get the recipe for Alton’s Potato Leek soup.
1. The first time I made this soup I did not have any Yukon Gold potatoes on hand, so I had to use Russett. It still produced a good tasting soup, but the Yukon Gold add a buttery taste to the soup, so I would buy them.
2. Buy whole white peppercorns for this soup and grind them in a spice (coffee) grinder. I also like to add a couple pinches of white pepper to my bowl when serving. The white pepper really makes this soup. It brings a great depth of flavor to the party.
3. The recipe calls for vegetable broth. I used Better than Bouillon Vegetable base, which you mix with the appropriate amount of water (it says on the side of the container).
4. I usually do a half recipe when making it. I found with a half recipe I usually get about 3-4 servings.
5. My daughter loves this soup and she is two years old!!! Little does she know that she ate leeks.
6. For the dairy, I don’t always have cream or buttermilk on hand. So I have used different combination of milk or half and half. Cream is best and will create a thicker soup. But if you want to cut out the fat or save some dough, then you can just use milk, the soup will still be good, just not as thick. I have never actually used buttermilk in it before, but I will try it next time.
My family loves this soup. It is easy to make and I can find all the ingredients without trouble. The leeks add a nice touch to the soup without being overpowering. I prefer leeks over onions, plus with leeks, no tears! The addition of the white pepper is what really does it for me. I never expected I would really like this soup, but I do. It makes a great lunch, appetizer for dinner, or even a main course along with some kind of greens.
Recipe Grade: A
Click here to get the recipe for Alton’s Potato Leek soup.
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