So I decided it was time to tweak my potato-leek soup recipe a little and stumbled upon Emeril Lagasse’s recipe the other day. It is really good! Except that I changed it around quite a bit, because Emeril’s proportions and ingredients seemed strangely pussified to me: I mean, here is a man who literally screams “BAM!” every time he, like, puts a dash of salt in a dish, and who will actually punch audience members in the face if he finds out they shy away from garlic, so why so tame?

Ingredients

• 1 lb leeks (this can range anywhere from 1 really big leek to like 4 small leeks)
• 2 bay leaves
• 20 or so rainbow/mixed peppercorns (Don’t bother counting, just put it in your hand and think for a second, “Does this look like it is probably around 20?”)
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme OR 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup white wine
• 4 cups chicken stock (beef or vegetable stock would be ok too)
• 4-5 russet potatoes, skin on, diced
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on what you like)
• 1/2 cup milk (if you need to veganize this, substitute 1/2 cup vegetable stock)
• 1/2 cup sour cream or creme fraiche (if you need to veganize this, substitute whatever vegans use instead of sour cream)

First, cut off the tops of the leeks, as you will mostly use the white and light green bulbs. Take two of the long green leaves and place in a cheesecloth along with the bay leaves, whole peppercorns, and thyme. Tie up with kitchen twine (or a metal-free clean ponytail holder that you can live with throwing out) to create a bouquet garni and set aside. Throw out the rest of the leek tops, by the way, as you do not need them now. Maybe you can start composting, if you feel guilty about this?

Anyway, if you don’t have cheesecloth, put the thyme and bay leaves directly into the soup later in the recipe (at the point I tell you to put in a bouquet garni), but you have to be able to fish these out later. They do not stay in the soup.

Cut the bottoms of the leeks in half lengthwise and rinse well in cold water - they are sandy and dirty little things, on occasion, owing to the fact that they live in dirt. Start melting the butter in a heavy soup pot on medium heat. While it’s melting, chop up the leeks roughly and place them in the pot to saute for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and saute for an additional 3 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil on medium-high. Once the wine mixture starts bubbling, add the bouquet garni, stock, potatoes, salt, and pepper and bring back to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover, cooking for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are falling apart.

Remove the bouquet garni and take the soup off heat. The easiest way to do this next step is with an immersion blender. If you don’t have one, you have to just transfer this in batches to a blender and it’s not really all that much fun. Immersion blenders cost next to nothing and they fit in NYC apartments better than blenders so really, you don’t have an excuse. Go get one!

…

Ok, are you back? Good, so now what you do is take the milk and stream it into the pot, while you are using your immersion blender to puree the potatoes and leeks. The soup will take on a creamy consistency - you can leave it as chunky or as smooth as you like, that’s up to you.

Once the soup is pureed, stir in the sour cream. You can also add chives and/or cheese if you have them around, but it’s not necessary.

This makes about 800 servings as far as I can tell but your mileage may vary. Alex and I ate 3 or 4 bowls each (!!) the day I made it and I’ve still got leftovers.