Tag Archives: potatoes

Erica's Bacon Potato Leek Soup

So I’m assembling and editing pictures from Saturday’s Regency Ball in order to put together a post for you guys. A few things you should know: I did not turn into a pumpkin. Our dresses were beautiful. Our husbands get an A + for coming with us and learning all those period dances. That evening we arrived back in Chicago pretty exhausted; those Regency dances may look calm and elegant, but lemme tell you–I worked up quite a sweat. So until the time that I can spit out the full report of our doings, I bring you: more food.

During that roadtrip to Kentucky two weekends ago to visit my sister Erica, she whipped up a lovely dinner for us in an attempt to recreate a soup she had experienced at a restaurant. Whereas I tend to get my inspiration from specific recipes, she is the queen of throwing things together and creating something marvelous from scratch. What magic lies in the recesses of her little brain? And how can I get some of that magic?

I don’t have answers yet, but I plan on absorbing whatever I can through faithful readings of her recently inaugurated blog. Maybe she will reveal her secrets, who knows.

So anyway: being the blonde tornado of wonder that she is in the kitchen, I just knew I had to record and photograph whatever she was concocting for posterity.

You can thank me after you make this simple, comforting soup. And if you’re thinking “Soup?? But it’s springtime! Salad time! Pasta Primavera time!” thing again. Here in Chicago we’re back down in the 30s, and soup season ain’t over yet.

Ingredients

(Serves 5)

6 rashers bacon

1 large onion, roughly chopped

5 large red potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 leeks, chopped (use the whole leek)

¼ cup light soy sauce

½ tsp ground coriander

6-8 cups water

3-4 cubes beef bouillon

Salt, to taste

½ tsp black pepper (or more, to taste)

Pinch of nutmeg

Half and half or heavy cream, to serve (optional)

Take hold of yon rashers of bacon.

Fry up the bacon in a large soup pot or Dutch oven.

Erica has a handy little bacon press that helps things cook quite uniformly.

Once it’s browned and crispy, remove the bacon and chop it up.

Important note: please fend off any cats that may gather during this time for bacon hand-outs.

While the bacon is frying, you can give a rough chop to the onion:

Peel and roughly chop the potatoes:

Check out Erica’s gorgeous rock. Uh huh.

And chop up those leeks too. Make sure to give them a good all-’round washing, because dirt gets stuck in between the layers, and you don’t want any suspicious crunching happening during the consumption of this soup.

Don’t be afraid of using the dark green parts–they are quite delicious. And I’m sure they’re also good for you in some way.

Remove all but 1 TBS bacon grease from the pot. Over medium high heat, fry the chopped onion for about 5 minutes, until it’s starting to get brown.

Grab the soy sauce and coriander:

Add it to the onions, and simmer for a few minutes.

Add the potato cubes . . .

. . . and the leeks and bacon too.

The bacon adds great flavor to the soup, but it will become limp after simmering for half an hour, so if you want some crunchy bacon on top, set a couple pieces aside and use them for garnishing the soup once you serve it.

Now: pour in enough water to almost cover everything. It’s okay if a couple leeks are peeking out.

This could be anywhere from 6-8 cups of liquid depending on the size of your pot. Give it a stir:

Add in the cubes of beef bouillon and the 1/2 tsp of black pepper, then cover the soup, turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender but not mushy or falling apart.

After those 30 minutes, taste! We needed loads more black pepper on our end.

Use a generous hand with that black pepper–we’re looking for a little punch.

Okay, not the most beautiful soup in creation, I’ll give you that. But back to the flavor: add a pinch of nutmeg to the soup, and taste again for seasoning. If you need more depth, add some more beef bouillon and soy sauce.

Time to serve! You have a choice: you can serve it as is . . .

. . . or with a little half and half or heavy cream stirred in.

I’ll let you guess which way I chose to eat mine.

Cream all the way, baby.

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Spicy Tuscan Soup

In the beautiful realm that is Tasty Kitchen (I know, it’s like I’m addicted) this recipe has gotten rave reviews time after time, and after staring at its mug on the internet for any number of months, I finally did my duty to mankind as well as to my own palate and made it.

And am I ever thankful that I did.

I figured if it was anything like Olive Garden’s Tuscan soup, it would be pretty dang good. Well, it surpassed even my loaded expectations.

Let me break it down to you real simple-like. In five words: Love, adoration, creaminess, love, creaminess.

Five adjectives? Spicy. Hearty. Satisfying. Flavorful. Delicious.

Five verbs? To eat. To sigh. To crave. To devour. To repeat.

After making it for the first time and failing to photograph it, I immediately made plans for making it again. So here is take 2, which I will hereby refer to as “Take Awesome.”

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1 lb spicy breakfast sausage (I used Jimmy Dean’s hot sausage)

1 red onion

3 slices bacon

5 cloves garlic

3 medium sized red potatoes

1 quart chicken stock

3 c roughly chopped kale leaves

1/2 c heavy whipping cream

Salt and pepper, to taste (go heavy on the black pepper)

Good evening, ingredients! (It’s always important to say a kind ‘hello’ to the ingredients–it makes them ever so much more cooperative.)

Step one: grab that sausage.

Tear it into rustic chunks with your fingers. I tried to make them all about the size of a meatball.

Then lick your fingers.

Just kidding! Please don’t obey me blindly. Except when I tell you to send me things–like a sample of that batch of cookies you just made. In that case, don’t question me. Or else.

Toss the sausage into a hot Dutch oven, and cook it over medium high heat until cooked through (about 10 minutes).

You’ll have to give it the occasional stir to make sure the pieces get browned all over. Remove the sausage to a plate and set it aside. But don’t worry–we’ll meet again.

Chop the onion, mince the garlic, and dice the bacon. Aren’t red onions just beautiful?

Make sure when you snap the picture that the bacon is completely out of focus. Check.

Add the bacon to the Dutch oven, and cook over medium-high for 5 minutes.

Soon it will start browning and your salivary glands will be activated.

Just direct your streams of drool away from the pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.

Wash the potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise, and then slice them into half-moons (1/4” slices).

Now let’s return to the Dutch oven, and pour in that chicken stock.

Toss in the potatoes too, while you’re at it.

Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes, and test the potatoes for doneness. You want them to be almost done–but not quite.

In the meantime, wash and roughly chop the kale. My grocery store was out of their supply of kale–with the exception of these prewashed, prechopped bags. My hand was forced! In Take 1, I dealt with kale in its natural state. But in Take Awesome, the work was all done for me. I have mixed feelings about that.

So back to business: once the potatoes are almost-done-but-not-quite, add the heavy cream . . .

. . . the reserved sausage . . .

. . . and the kale.

I like lotsa lotsa kale. Plus, it wilts down just like spinach. So what looks like ‘lotsa lotsa’ will actually become a healthy, moderate amount.

It’s also the right time to add copious amounts of black pepper. Taste the soup and season it to your liking.

Simmer it for another 5 minutes, stirring to incorporate everything.

Grab a ladle, and let’s serve it up.

Some buttery chunks of garlic bread wouldn’t be amiss at all. No sirree.

I love how this soup is full of ‘stuff’–it means that each bite is a fun adventure in flavor and texture. Just look at what this spoonful turned up.

If I haven’t made myself clear, I highly, highly recommend this soup.

But the only thing that will fully convince you of the awesomeness and wonder of this soup is actually making it. So what are you waiting for? Grab your grocery list! Add the ingredients! Hop to it!

Thanks for letting me order you about–it may happen quite frequently on this blog. It helps give my bossy older sister tendencies a good airing.

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