This is one of the easiest, quickest and most delicious soups I know and it’s as painless to make for one as it is for a crowd.
You need leeks, potatoes, water, salt and pepper and a knob of butter. If there’s some thyme around, it lifts the soup slightly but is not essential to the success of the dish. All you do is boil everything up together until the leeks are tender and the potato has started to disintegrate and thicken the soup. Stir in the butter and it’s done. If you happen to have a bunch of flat leaf parsley to hand, chop the leaves and add them just before serving. It ends up slightly different every time its made, depending on the potatoes and how long they are cooked; sometimes they entirely disintegrate, other times they stay relatively firm. Depends, also, on how much of a hurry you are in for sustenance. I sometimes add a poached egg and if I’ve made too much, I liquidize the leftovers to make an entirely different but extraordinarily tasty and creamy soup.
Allow one leek and one decent-sized, floury potato per person and follow this routine:
Trim the leeks and slice the white and pale green part quite thickly and finely slice the inner part of the dark green flags (the official name; don’t ask me why). Soak in cold water for a few minutes, agitate to loosen any mud, rinse again and drain. Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks, rinse and place in a pan with the leeks. Season with salt and pepper, add a few sprigs of thyme if liked and cover generously with water. Boil for 10-15 minutes until the leeks are tender and potato beginning to disintegrate. Add the butter, swirl it around as it melts. Taste and adjust the seasoning. If adding chopped flat leaf parsley, do so now. Eat immediately. Lovely with well buttered bread to dunk and slurp but extra special with garlic bread.