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Showing posts with label leek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leek. Show all posts

Monday, April 18, 2016

Pressure Cooker Potato Leek Soup

In our house, we have potato leek soup a couple of times a month.  The facts that potatoes keep on the shelf so well, are often the last produce around before grocery shopping day, and cook relatively quickly have made this soup one of our main staples.

When I first became a Nutritarian, I really missed the creaminess of thick soups and sauces, so potato leek soup was one of my first favorites because it gives you that creaminess without any cow cream.  To make a similar recipe, but on the stovetop, refer to Katies Creamy Potato Soup recipe here.  This was a recipe I adapted from my sister-in-law that I love love!

Now-a-days, I make my potato leek soup a bit differently, and in "my precious" pressure cooker.  Quite literally, I called it "my precious" in our move last weekend while a coworker of Kevins was packing it.  Yep...  I went full-on LOTR Gollum with an appliance, but if you have one, you will know what I mean.

In the recipe I am about to share with you, I like to add lots of veggies besides potatoes and leeks.  I often throw in whatever sounds good in my fridge that needs to be used up, but this is my general recipe.  In the pressure cooker, this takes only 6 minutes at pressure with a quick release at the end!

Pressure Cooker Potato Leek Soup
Time: 10 minute prep, 6 minutes high pressure, quick release
Servings: 8-10 servings


Ingredients:
        2 lbs mixed white, red, golden potatoes - peeled if not organic and cut into 2 inch cubes
        2 leeks trimmed, washed well, and sliced including most of the green portion
        2 cloves garlic, minced
        3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
        3 medium celery stalks, diced
        1 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped, any variety
        1 Tbsp dried herb mix - see note below
        8 cups of water (boiling when added, if desired to reach high pressure faster)
        1-2 cups unsweetened plant-based milk (optional)

Instructions:
1.)  On the saute function, saute the chopped leeks and minced garlic for 3-5 minutes, adding water as needed to prevent burning.
2.)  Add in the remainder of the ingredients EXCEPT for the plant-based milk.  Lock the pressure cooker lid in place and cook at high pressure for 5-7 minutes.
3.)  After the allotted time, do a manual quick release of the pressure, or allow the pressure to come down naturally.
4.)  With an immersion blender or high-powered blender, blend the soup to your desired thickness, being cautious not to overprocess.  Potatoes can get a bit gummy if they are blended too much.
5.)  Season with salt and pepper, and serve warm topped with fresh herbs, nutritional yeast, and/or green onion.


Amys Notes:

Sometimes I substitute one leek with one yellow onion or two bunches of green onions, depending on the price of leeks during the year and my pantry stock of onions.  I find the flavor to be just as nice, and save me a bit of money as well.

For the dried herbs, I like to mix it up from batch to batch, but I generally add at least 1 Tbsp total of dried herbs.  My favorite lately is Herbs de Provence, but you could also do a mixture of thyme, rosemary, fennel seeds, basil, oregano, parsley, marjoram, sage, etc.



Health and Happiness,

Amy


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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Katies Creamy Potato Leek Soup


Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!  Ive been busy with cooking, cleaning, and hanging out with friends.  Friday night a few of us went to the Spokane Oktoberfest to try out a few beers from over 20 different breweries.  It was a great time out with friends being beer connoisseurs.
Everyday Vegan Girl
For Healthy Vegan Friday I will be featuring the soup I had for dinners and I featured in this weeks What I Ate Wednesday.  My sister-in-law Katie sent me this recipe after she had described it to me as "Amazing!"  I found it to be a great recipe to use up some of the vegetables I had left from the veggie trays at our reception (the carrots and celery).  It is so simple, yet delicious.  Hope you give it a try!

Ingredients:

  • 2 large leeks, roughly chopped
  • 6 medium potatoes (or equivalent red potatoes), diced
  • 2 medium carrots, sliced
  • 2 medium celery stalks, sliced
  • 8 cups water
  • 2 cups non-dairy milk (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Some suggested spice combinations:
    • 1/2 tsp thyme and 1/2 tsp marjoram
    • 1 tsp rosemary
    • 1/2 tsp basil and 1/2 thyme
Directions:
  1. Chop the leeks, carrot, and celery, and water saute in a dutch oven or large pot for about 10 minutes.
  2. Add your selected spices to the vegetables while they are sauteing.
  3. In the meantime, scrub potatoes and chop into 1 inch chunks (peeling optional).
  4. Add potatoes, water, and salt to pot.  
  5. Bring to a boil.
  6. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
  7. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup to a creamy consistency.
  8. Stir in milk to thin and give a creamier taste (optional).
Amys Notes:
This a fairly versatile soup in how you decide to make it.  I used red potatoes and left the skin on, but you could easily use russet potatoes and choose to leave the skins on or off.  Also, if you dont happen to have leeks on hand, you might be able to use an onion or three in replacement.  The spices in this recipe are also very versatile.  Whatever your spice/dried herb preference, give it a try with this soup.  From the pictures you can tell that the soup in the pot is not as light in color as the soup in my bowl.  This is because I added a bit of almond milk once I served the soup.  This worked well for Kevin and I because he preferred to add his regular milk while I added my non-dairy milk.  This little trick also is great for saving room in your fridge with the leftovers.  If you dont add the milk until you are going to eat the leftovers, it will allow you to store thicker soup in smaller containers to save room in the fridge.
What is your favorite versatile recipe or your favorite recipe to use up vegetables in your fridge?
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Friday, February 12, 2016

EASY CHICKEN AND LEEK BAKE

I love a chicken pie but I am not that mad on pastry, therefore I was delighted to find this recipe for a chicken bake with a crispy topping. The weather is miserable and winter is on its way so this was the perfect recipe to cook. Plus it was easy!! It took about 45-50 minutes in total to prepare and cook.

Ingredients for 4 people:

2 tbsp olive oil
6 chicken thighs,skinned, boned and cubed
6 rashes of smoked streaky bacon, roughly cut into 1 cm wide strips
2 leeks, sliced
4 lemon thyme sprigs (I just used normal thyme as that is all we had in the garden)
350g tub of cheese sauce (I used a three cheese sauce)
35g fresh white breadcrumbs
2 x 25g packs Walkers Sour Cream and Cracked Pepper Sunbites, crumbled
25g flat leaf parsley, chopped



Prepare all the ingredients such as cutting the chicken, crumble the crisps (I squeezed the packets), slice the leeks and chop the parsley.

You can fry the bacon but I prefer to grill it as it is "slightly" healthier so heat the grill to a medium to high heat and then put the bacon in for around 8 minutes, turning half way through.

Once the bacon has cooked start preheating the oven to 200 C / gas mark 6.



At the same time heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan and cook the chicken over a high heat for 6 minutes until nicely browned.





The bacon should be ready around now and so chop into strips and then add to the chicken with the leeks and the thyme and cook for a further 2-3 minutes until the leeks are softened.




Stir in the cheese sauce, cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through - it is always wise to check….no one wants food poisoning!!




Meanwhile stir the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil into the breadcrumbs and then mix in the crumbled Sunbite crisps and parsley.



Spoon the chicken mixture into an oven proof dish.



Scatter over the parsley and breadcrumb mix.


Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until crunchy and golden.



Serve either on its own or with a mixed green leaf salad or vegetables.



This was good - I will admit we added some grated cheese which I think it needed, however I am a cheese obsessive. When I cook it next time, I will add some Parmesan to the breadcrumb, crisp and parsley topping. If you are a vegetarian you could substitute the chicken and bacon for some mushrooms, peppers and courgettes and the chicken mixture is freezable.

I much preferred this to a normal pie - Arabella moaned there was too much parsley and I think I should have chopped it into smaller pieces however it didnt really make a difference as we really enjoyed it and managed to polish off the entire portion between the three of us! 
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