Potato-Leek Soup

5 leeks, cut into thing rounds most of the way up until the green part becomes too tough

8 smallish potatoes, cut into small pieces (we used 1 blue potato, 2 red potatoes, 1 fingerling potato, and 4 German Butterball potatoes)

A small head of garlic, minced

2 small onions, chopped fairly small

1  carrot, grated

Generous pinch of tarragon

1 teaspoon garlic powder,

Just under a teaspoon dry mustard

salt & pepper

Frozen parsley

 

1. Put all the vegetables in a soup pot with a light coating of oil and about an inch of broth and cook until the onions start to soften.  Add salt and pepper.
2. Add 6 cups of stock (we used partly bouillon and partly our own frozen stock-thanks to Mary at Harvest Kitchen for the idea of saving all of our cooking scraps like potato skins and carrot tops to make stock)
3. Cook until the potatoes are soft, then season with tarragon, garlic powder, and dry mustard.
4. Finally, turn off the heat, stir in a handful of parsley (ours we frozen raw this fall, but fresh would work as well) and eat with cheese, bread, or whatever you like on your soup.
5. Delicious with a dollop of horseradish mustard.

 

Egg Drop Soup

It is 8 degrees out and snowing.  So we are, as usual, having soup.  This one is an expansion on simple egg drop soup.   You can find the original recipe in Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express.

For this bitter cold February evening we chopped up one leek and grated up one carrot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We boiled five cups of stock then added the leek and carrot.  For seasoning we added a dash of soy sauce and grated a little dried ginger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, while stirring the soup quickly we poured in the beaten egg, stirring a lot, and cooked for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To go alongside this are rice noodles (soak for half an hour before cooking, then boil for two minutes or until just slightly opaque and separate easily).