Leek & Cheesy Potato
- Scott Johnson
- Mar 9
- 3 min read
I've made a soup like this in quite a few restaurants I've worked in. It's very similar to my vichyssoise recipe, which is a classic French potato and leek soup traditionally served cold. The main difference in this, is that I swapped the cream to sour cream and cheese. I decided to take this concept, and tweak it out a little bit so it finishes like a french onion soup, by melting some extra cheese on bread and scallions.
I want to highlight a couple of things with this soup that I run across while making a soup in this style. First off, I've included pictures of the leeks being cleaned. As you see in the picture of the bowl with water, there is a ton of dirt inside leeks. If you slice the leeks open, keeping the stems intact, then flip through the leeks in the water, you'll remove the majority of dirt that is in between the layers of leeks.
Because I decided to temper in sour cream, instead of using cream, you can see I started in a separate bowl that I added small amounts of broth into before adding it to a light roux. If you try to add the sour cream directly into the soup, more often than not it won't be properly incorporated. Once I made the roux, and added the tempered sour cream to the base, as well as the herbed goat cheese.
From here, I added the cheesy roux to the cooked leeks and potatoes which I had pureed. I finished the soup with the smoked Gruyere and more seasoning. I served this by putting it into an oven safe soup dish, putting scallions and crostinis on it, then shaving more cheese before I baked it.
Enjoy.
Ingredients
Yukon gold potatoes, peeled 10 ea
leeks, cleaned and rough chopped 6 ea
garlic, peeled & chopped 1 head
butter 1/2 lb
chicken stock 2 qt
water 1 qt
jalapeno, sliced 1 ea
smoked Gruyere 8 oz
herbed goat cheese 8 oz
sour cream 4 oz
thyme, rough chopped 3 sprigs
sage, rough chopped 1 sprig
rosemary, rough chopped 1 sprig
Avenue Spice 2 T
dijon mustard 2 T
roux* 1/2 cup
salt to taste
pepper to taste
*the roux in this recipe is to help bind the sour cream, as opposed to thickening the soup. The butter and flour for this are not included in the ingredient listing
Garnish
scallions, crostinis, shredded Gruyere
Method of Procedure
Start by cleaning your leeks. Split them, keeping the ends intact, and run them under water. Place them in a bowl full of water and flip through the layers. Once done pull them out of the water. Do not pour the water over them, as the dirt will get back into the leek layers.
Once the leeks are cleaned, rough chop them.
Melt your butter in your soup pot and add your garlic, leeks, jalapeno, and herbs. Saute on medium heat until your leeks are softened.
Peel and chop your potatoes and add them to the softened leeks.
Add your chicken stock, Avenue Spice, and water. Bring to a boil, then drop to a simmer and cook until your potatoes are done.
In a mixing bowl, combine your sour cream and mustard together. Once blended add a small amount of liquid from your soup and mix until incorporated. Repeat until your sour cream is more of a liquid.
In a separate pot start with butter and flour to make a roux. Add your sour cream mixture to the roux and stir to combine.
Put your goat cheese into your mixture and mix until the cheese is completely incorporated.
Blend your potato and leeks in a blender until completely smooth. Run through a strainer to make sure it is uniform.
Add your goat cheese mixture into your soup through a mesh strainer*. Continue to combine the mixture into the soup while whisking.
Return to a low heat and continue to cook so the soup thickens to the proper consistency.
Add your grated Gruyere, reserving some for garnish, and season your soup to taste.
To serve, ladle into a bowl, place crostinis and scallions on the soup, then finish with grated Gruyere.
Baked in the oven until lightly browned.
*running a roux based mixture through a strainer, either before or after the cooking process, ensures you don't have any clumps of flour in the mix.
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