Creamless "creamy" leek soup

Back in September we went to a BBQ at Steve and Becky's farm and toured their beautiful vegetable garden, I was amazed at the amount of leeks they had, they looked really healthy (compared with mine who suffered the Beaver spell) and I exclaimed "leek soup, you have to make leek soup with these beauties".

Fast forward and every time I see Steve he reminds me I have to send him my leek soup recipe. So finally it is here, the weather we are experiencing at the moment is very conducive (5 days of non stop rain) to having soup and curling up by the fire.

Creamless "creamy" leek soup

For 4 servings

Ingredients

2 TBSP olive oil

2 lbs leek (approx.)

4 cloves of garlic

1 shallot

1/2 cup dry white wine (I always keep a stock of these small wine bottles for cooking)

3 to 4 cups chicken broth (or water and 1 bouillon cube)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Remove the root and trim the top off the leeks (if you buy them usually they are already trimmed, in this case just cut half an inch off to remove the dried out part), wash the leeks then slice/chop them.

In a cast iron (or other) pot pour 1 or 2 spoon full of olive oil and turn on the heat to medium, pour the cut out leeks over and sweat them for 20 mn or so until tender. Half way through add the garlic and shallot peeled and thinly sliced.

When the bottom of the pot starts browning add the white wine to deglaze and stir. Then pour the chicken stock, salt and pepper to taste and let the soup simmer for 30mn or so.

Taste to see if cooked through.

At this point you can either serve as is or, as I did, use the immersion blender and blend the soup.

You obtain a very thick and creamy soup without the guilt factor of the cream.

Serve with a sprinkle of freshly cut parsley.

Bon appétit!