I consulted several recipes, both in cookbooks and on Epicurious, but I didn't follow any of them exactly. Fortunately, there's a lot more leeway for this in cooking than in baking. I wanted a thick, creamy, flavorful soup, like vichyssoise, but warm (vichyssoise is served cold). Here's what I came up with - it turned out pretty well. Potato leek soup is pretty forgiving - you can adjust the amounts of liquid to suit your taste (e.g., some recipes called for cream, some for milk. None called for half-and-half, but I made an educated guess that it would turn out just fine, and you know what? It did).
Ingredients:
about 3 pounds of potatoes (Red Bliss are good; I used a mix of ordinary potatoes and fingerling)
2 large or 4 small leeks
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
3 cups water
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
fresh chopped chives for garnish
salt and pepper to taste
I didn't have any fresh chives, so I used parsley flakes and shaved carrot for garnish.
Directions:
Wash, peel, and chop the potatoes. Wash and chop the leeks (white and light green part only). Put the first seven ingredients in a soup pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for about an hour - potatoes should be soft. Remove from heat and let cool a little; then blend/puree in batches. If you like a chunkier soup, just blend a few cups, rather than the whole soup. Garnish with fresh chopped chives.
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