Emily's Cooking Blog

Usually eaten hot, it’s also surprisingly delicious eaten fridge-cold on a summer’s day with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dollop of natural yoghurt.

Ingredients

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 sticks celery, sliced

2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped

400 g leeks

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

400 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm dice.

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. Chicken base

7 c. boiling water

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Cut the ends off the leeks, quarter them lengthways. Wash them under running water and cut them into 1 cm slices.

2. Place a large pan on high heat and add 2 tbsp. of olive oil.

3. Add all your chopped and sliced ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon.

4. Cook for around 10 minutes with the lid askew, until the carrots have softened, but are still holding their shape, and the onion and leeks are lightly golden.

5. Put the chicken base into a pan and pour in 7 c. boiling water from the kettle. Stir until the base is dissolved, then add to the vegetables.

6. Add your potatoes. Give the soup a good stir and bring to the boil.

7. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minute with the lid on.

8. Remove the pan from the heat. Season with salt and pepper.

9. Serve like this or pulse until smooth using a hand blender.

Source: jamieoliver.com

On Tuesday, March 28th, my Commercial Cooking class made leek and potato soup. This was the second soup we made and there was much more stuff to be done compared to the previous soup. On Monday, March 27th, some ingredients for the soup were prepared ahead of time, I was not there this day so I cannot say whether or not that went well. Something that went well was all of our vegetables were relatively evenly cut and therefore evenly cooked. This gave the soup a nice texture. One thing that could have been improved was the colour of our soup. The bottom of our pot had a dark, charred bottom and my group did not recognize that it was food residue till our soup was complete. One thing that I learned in class that was crucial to the recipe was how to recognize when the vegetables were properly cooked so the broth could be added. I thoroughly enjoyed making this soup.