Leek Soup – follow your gurus

Before starting to Jittery Cook, I was a weight watcher. Now I have a little more in common with the Barefoot Contessa than I’d like. No offense BC, but cooking for flavour can do a number on your scale — a number I’d rather not believe.

My guru-friends do their best to guide me. Harriet Sugar Miller, despite her name, sounds the high sugar and bad fat alarms. Shelley Alper steers me towards solutions, such as My Fitness Pal and Super Tracker. I’ll never bore you with how I lost 5-10 pounds, unless you ask me directly. I’m just casually making my recipes more conducive to shedding pounds.

This Leek Soup is a case in point, and has lots of healthy ingredients. If you must know, I didn’t follow my own recommendation to serve with crusty bread.

Leek Soup

The secret to the soup is allowing the leeks to sweat slowly in the hot, garlicky oil and butter until they are soft and flavourful.

• 2 large dry shallots, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• a knob of butter
• 1 T olive oil
• 6 medium sized leeks, dark green parts removed, sliced
• 3 sticks celery, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 large carrots, thinly sliced
• 1-2 t dried oregano
• 4 bay leaves
• 6 c vegetable stock
• 2 handfuls baby spinach, roughly chopped

Heat a large pot, then add the oil and butter. When the butter foams, add the garlic and shallot. Cook until they begin to colour.
Stir in leeks, celery and carrots.  Add oregano and bay leaves, then cook for 10 minutes, on medium heat, slightly covered, stirring occasionally. Add half the stock and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the stock and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add the spinach and cook a minute until the spinach wilts. Sprinkle with parmesan and serve with crusty bread. Serves 6.

Leek Soup Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• Recipe inspired by Jamie Oliver’s member recipes.
• I thought about making this Leek Soup, from French Women Don’t Get Fat, as it allegedly jump starts significant weight loss.
• Do you want to know why leeks are healthy?  
  
• FYI the soup tasted even better the next day.

 

Related articles

• Potato Leek Soup (gingersmoothyandottopilot.com)
• Sleek Leeks (canadianliving.com)
• Top 10 Vegan and Vegetarian Leek Recipes for Fall (eatdrinkbetter.com)