Roasted Potato & Leek Soup ~ Recipe

Remember those leeks that I mentioned having left in the garden? Well I did finally pull them up but not until after they had been hit by a hard frost *grin*. I had planned to make soup with them so I wasn't to worried if they froze but you know what, when I pulled them out of the frozen soil they came out perfectly clean! Now if only I could pull them out of the ground like that all the time :)

I was really excited to try making a creamed leek and potato soup using some of the potatoes and rosemary that came out of our garden as well.

I started by cleaning 12 of my leeks by trimming off the hard green tops and the roots leaving the nice white fleshy bottoms and then splitting them in half. My leeks were only 1/2 - 1 inch in diameter so if you are buying leeks you could use 4 really nice large leeks :) I then added 8 peeled and cubed medium sized potatoes, 1 large sweet onion such as a walla walla quartered, 1 large red pepper cut into large chunks and 2 sprigs of rosemary.

Place all of your vegetables into your roasting pan, toss with a generous splash of olive oil, some salt and pepper and roast at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 miutes or until all of your vegetables are fork tender. Mmm, the smell of them roasting is delightful *grin*.

Once your vegetables are cooked and slightly cooled it's time to pureé them in your blender :) Place a couple large scoops of vegetables in your blender with a good splash of milk and blend until smooth.

I decided to make my soup milk based but you could use chicken or vegetable stock in place of the milk if you like! I also found that the potatoes made the mixture quite thick while they were in the blender so if you have one of those stick blenders that might make quicker work of the blending so that you don't have to do multiple batches in the blender :)

Once you have pureed all of your veggies you can adjust the thickness of your soup by adding more milk or stock and season with additional salt and pepper to your liking :)

This is a delighfully filling soup and the roasted vegetables give it a yummy flavor. Plus with it being so smooth and creamy your children will have NO idea what is in it *grin*. The perfect solution to the picky eater LOL.

I paired it with homemade cheese buns and everyone loved it :) I hope you enjoy making some for your family.

Hugs,
Rosina

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Last Vegetables in the Garden

The nights are growing colder up our neck of the woods and with a few frosty mornings lately I thought that maybe we should head out to the garden and pick some of what is left still growing out there :)

Any bits of lettuce and radishes that were left behind have now gone to seed but we have a row of red cabbage that is flourishing in the wet weather. I think the kids were quite surprised to find that they had grown so big!

Everyone had a turn tearing off the large bug eaten outer leaves and pulling the heads, roots and all out of the soil :) Harvesting is sooo much more fun than weeding! I don't remember seeing so much enthusiasm when it was time to pull chickweed, thistles and other weeds *grin*.

Here's one of our larger ones. It must have been around 8 inches in diameter and quite heavy. As I had my little mini photo shoot with the kids you could see that their arms were getting quite tired from lifting them up *grin*. They're such good sports for their mama LOL.

All that's left now are the leeks. They are doing fabulously despite being completely surround by weeds *grin*. We stopped weeding a while ago. Part laziness, part master plan as the weeds were covering the soil and keeping it much more moist than when the dirt was open to the sun and then it dried out so quickly. Haha, see there is a method to my madness!!

I'm not quite ready to pull them all as there are way to many to just eat so I would have to blanch them for freezing so I think I might mulch them and see if I can prevent them from freezing and be able to pull them fresh from the garden as I need them :) How long do you leave your leeks in the garden?

Hugs,
Rosina