I made a few changes, served with homemade bread and my husband declared it to be "the best thing he ever ate." I pureed the potatoes with my hand blender, used 1/2 the bacon called for, added 2 very large cloves of garlic to the leeks and used 1% milk in place of the cream. I used canned chicken broth and next time will use reduced sodium as I did think it too salty- even with no added salt. Definitely a keeper!
I also looked at this recipe and thought.. "5 ingredients? No kidding!" But i'll be damned if this isn't the best Potato and Leek soup i've ever had! It was so simple and easy to make and took no time at all. I think it's the "basicness" of this recipe that is most appealing. Not much to mess up and the results are wonderful. I left the ingredients exactly as stated and didn't change anything. I was left with a sensationally robust chunky and very flavoursome soup. The only thing i MAY try next time is instead of cutting up all the bacon i'll just grab bacon bits. But it may detract from the presentation of the soup at the end. It's nice to see all those chunks of potato and bacon in it. My family AND neighbours loved it and i'll definately be making it again.
A really excellent combination of tastes, with no additional seasonings needed. I modified the recipe somewhat by mixing in one-third of the sauteed leeks with the cooked potatoes, then blending about two-thirds of the resulting soup into a puree before mixing it back in with the rest of the potatoes and adding the remaining leeks and cream. It's a very rich soup and Half and Half cream seems to sustain the flavor while reducing the calories and fat content somewhat.
A very delicous soup. Easy to follow instructions. It felt sinful to eat because of it's high fat content. A lower fat alternative I have tried to the bacon is smoked ham and milk instead of heavy cream. Sauteing the leeks is key to good flavor.
Wow! I was at the store and noticed the fresh leeks and bought them on a whim, then came home and looked up a recipe - i'm so glad I picked this one! I am literally eating the soup as we speak and it is phenomenal. After reading other's reviews and seeing what I had on hand, I used 5 cups of chicken broth instead of 4 (5 cups of water seasoned with chicken buillion cubes); used half a pound of bacon and half a pound of cubed pancetta (I live in Italy now and we have to use what we can find!); sauteed 4 chopped garlic cloves with the 2 whole leeks; after the potatoes were tender I took out approximately 1/4 of the batch and mashed them easily by hand with a masher. This recipe is delicious. A good way to clean leeks for those of us who dont cook with them often is as follows: 1. Rinse the outsides, cut off the bulb/root. 2. remove any outside leaves that are spotty or extra dark green, trim the ends of the green top of the leek. 3. cut the leek lengthwise down the middle, and chop according to recipe. 4. Place leeks in bowl of warm water and swirl around to remove excess dirt. 5. scoop out leeks and place in colandar, rinse. It seems like alot of work, but really its not that hard and it is worth it to not have dirt in your recipe. Thanks for the delicious soup - will most definitely make again!
Seriously good soup!! I've made it lots of different ways and it always turns out perfect. I've substituted onions for leeks and ham for the bacon. I always use milk to make it more healthy. To make up for it, and to make the soup thicker, I stir in about 1/4 cup of potato flour - this makes it perfect - almost like a thick stew. I get compliments everytime I make this recipe - and that's quite often!!
This recipe was good, but the directions were vague. I did not know what kind of potato to use, so I used large russett potatoes. I only needed 4. Also, the leeks were huge. I only needed one. I did use a hand blender to cream the potatoes before I added the other ingredients. I also used half and half instead of heaving whipping cream. I will definitely make this recipe again.
Delicious with or without the cream (for dieters)! Even better if you throw everything but the cream in right away to boil into the soup! Mash it all before you add the cream for a thick smooth soup!
What a delicious soup. I used low sodium chicken broth since I figured the bacon would lend enough salt to the recipe. I used half fat cream and I think I could have easily used milk instead. I also used a hand blender to purée the potatoes which made it thick and creamy. Served it with some homemade bread and it made for a wonderful rainy night supper.
This recipe came out very bland and tasteless. I used whole milk instead of cream but otherwise followed the recipe. Won't make this again!
