Growing leeks & making soup

On the days when it still feels like winter there’s nothing nicer than home-made soup using vegetables from the allotment

It’s thin pickings at the allotment these days, with just four leeks left, my plan is to definitely grow a lot more of them this year.

I bought this lot as tiny plants, but this year I’m growing them from seed, sowing them any day now starting them off inside on the window-sill. Once they’ve grown into small plants, they’ll be housed out in the cold-frame before planting at the allotment in May.

They’ll be ready for picking in autumn, and the good thing about leeks is that they keep really well in the ground over winter, so you just pick them as you need them, using the ground as a kind of larder.

Back to the soup:

 

• … home-made chicken stock (a chicken carcass and an unpeeled onion or two cut into quarters, covered in cold and water and simmered for at least an hour, then frozen in bags when cold if you don’t need it straight-away)
• 1 onion
• 4 leeks
• 3 medium potatoes

gently fry a chopped onion in olive oil & butter

add the well-washed sliced leeks and and cook till soft

tip in the potatoes and stir round for  minute until they’re nicely coated with the oil/butter

add the stock to the pan, gently heat and simmer until its all cooked, 20 mins should be just about right

blitz the cooled soup to the consistency you like with a hand-held blender, I prefer a bit of texture to mine, add a swirl of cream if you’re feeling decadent.

The quantities aren’t at all precise,it depends on the size of the vegetables. Sometimes I add a handful of frozen peas, leave out the onion or add a couple of garlic cloves.

The home-made chicken stock really does make all the difference to the taste and uses every last bit of the bird.

If you fancy some baking there’s a rhubarb cake recipe here.

Happy gardening and eating

Jill