Potato-Leek Soup with Kale and My One Year Blog Anniversary

Photo Courtesy of Brad Lovejoy

Happy one-year blog anniversary to me! What a ride this first year has been. I have prepared approximately 130 new recipes and I can honestly say that less than ten of the recipes were flops. Pretty amazing for a girl that came into this project with only a few cooking skills. Before I move on to today's recipe, I would like to thank my wonderful husband for his support and beautiful photography. This cooking project ended up being consuming at times but Brad always took time to encourage me and to taste the finished products. I'm not saying that the tasting was torture, but he did have a lot of patience with me during some of my hectic recipe preparations. I would also like to thank my little blonde sous chef. Thank you, Honeys. :)

To commemorate my one-year mark in this culinary adventure, I decided to take a leap by creating my own recipe. I was inspired to do so when I was in my vegetable garden today and found that I had a bounty of potatoes in one of my pots. I wrote off the potatoes about four months ago so imagine my surprise when I realized that the pot was full of mature baby potatoes. I then looked around to find several stems of dark green kale, two leeks, one Walla Walla Sweet onion and fresh thyme.

Photo Courtesy of Brad Lovejoy

I examined my winter garden haul and decided that I should use these ingredients to create a soup recipe for dinner. The following is my first original recipe.

Ingredients:

2 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced

1 small Walla Walla Sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 tsp fresh thyme plus one thyme sprig

1 bay leaf

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup water

3/4 Tbsp kosher salt plus one pinch

5 cracks black pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 cups kale, chopped into 1-inch pieces

4 cups potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes

3 tsp white wine vinegar

In dutch oven or large soup pot, combine leeks, onion, garlic, one teaspoon thyme, one pinch kosher salt and olive oil. Saute for two minutes on low heat. Leeks will take on a burnt flavor if sauteed for too long. Add chicken broth, water, potatoes, thyme sprig, bay leaf, 3/4 tablespoon kosher salt and black pepper. Simmer on medium-low for 25 minutes. Stir in 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar. Remove from heat. Blend soup with immersion blender, leaving several small chunks of potato.

Place kale and one teaspoon vinegar in medium saute pan. Heat until kale is slightly wilted while maintaining crisp texture. Add kale to soup and stir. Serve immediately.

I am quite proud of the end result. The soup was smooth and creamy but the kale provided a contrasting texture that kept the dish interesting. I tasted the soup as I created the recipe and somehow, I knew what to add at each step. My proudest moment was when I realized that the soup needed some type of acidity and I chose to add white wine vinegar, which was the perfect choice. If you had asked me what to add to this recipe a year ago, I would have looked at you with a blank expression. Oh, what a year can do!

The only aspect of the recipe I would alter is to crisp up a half cup of kale in the oven to use as a topping for the soup. This would add another contrasting texture and it would spice the dish up aesthetically. Other than this one addition, I would definitely make the soup as-is again. The best part, of course, is that all of the main ingredients were found in my garden...... in January. What a beautiful surprise.

Recipe Source:

Kiersten Lovejoy