Weekend Cooking: Soup Duo

Last weekend Chinoiseries posted about soup and now it’s a gray, rainy Saturday and I’m thinking about soup, too. This week I made my go-to soup, which in French we call a potage, and which is the easiest soup to make ever. I learned how to make it from watching my mother-in-law cook, and it’s the reason I actually own an immersion/hand blender, which I’d never even heard of when living in the U.S. This is a great soup for when you need a little cool weather comfort.

Potage

Ingredients:

1-2 leeks (just the white part)

4-6 medium carrots

2 small potatoes

bouquet garni

salt & pepper

Directions:

Roughly slice the vegetables and place in a dutch oven or other large pot. Fill with water just until the vegetables are covered and salt and pepper to taste.  Place a bouquet garni on top and cook on medium heat for 40 minutes.

Remove the bouquet garni, then use an hand blender to blend the soup (you can make it as chunky or as smooth as you wish). If your soup is too thick, you can add in milk or hot water to thin it out.

Your soup is ready to serve!  I like mine with a dollop of cream and garlic croutons…yum.

Another soup that is a yucky weather or feeling under-the weather favorite is Jamie Oliver’s Chile Corn Chowder. This one never fails to warm me up.

Chile Corn Chowder (adapted from Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals app)

Ingredients:

200 g frozen sweet corn

1 small potato

700 mL vegetable broth

1 small onion

1 medium fresh red chile

1 pat butter

1 small bunch fresh thyme

3 scallions

75 mL sour cream or crème fraîche

olive oil

salt & pepper

Directions:

Fill a medium pan with vegetable broth and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Peel and roughly chop the onion and halve the chile lengthways. Finely chop one half, keep the other for later.

Put a large deep pan on medium-low heat and add the butter and olive oil.  Meanwhile, pick the thyme leaves and add to the pan of broth. Add all the chopped veg to the large pan, along with a splash of water. Stir then cover with a lid and cook gently for 10 minutes, or until the veggies start to soften.

Peel the potato then roughly grate into the pan of simmering broth. Add the corn to the pan of veggies and cook for 2-3 minutes. Carefully pour the broth and potato into the pan and bring everything to a boil.

Simmer for 5 minutes then take off heat. Pulse the chowder a few times with a hand blender so that it’s still quite rustic and chunky. Taste and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls, and serve with a dollop of cream. You can top with grated cheese, sliced scallions, and the rest of the chopped chile.  Enjoy!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs…

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