Your new favorite potato soup!

Ok so I thought my first recipe could be my new potato soup that I have made a bunch of times now. I found a simple recipe for potato leek soup somewhere on the internet and kind of made it my own. Brian loves it. Its super simple and super tasty and takes just a few minutes to prep and a few more to cook. The only thing you really need is either a blender or a stick blender, which is what I use. Those little handheld things that are for shakes and things. This this is a must have for the type of cooking I do. Which is lots of soups! So here is the recipe:

4 big ol russet potatoes (peeled)
2 leeks white and light green parts
1 yellow onion
2 veggie boulion cubes
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of rosemary
a bay leaf (if you want)
salt and pepper
4 cups of water
a few drops of liquid smoke (totally optional but really great)

So first you need to prep your leeks. I just recently learned about the amazing leek. I have always wanted to use them but never really knew what to do with them. The best way to do it is to slice the green part off and then slice the light green/white part into 1/4 slices. You want a couple cups worth of chopped leeks. Put them in the strainer and rinse the heck out of them. They tend to have sand in them and the last thing you want is sand in your soup!

Then you want to saute the leeks in a little oil along with the chopped yellow onion and a few dashes of salt and pepper. Dont worry about cutting things perfectly because you are going to blend it all up. Saute for about 5-7 minutes until translucent and fragrant. Next, add everything else but the liquid smoke. Make sure the water just barely covers the potatoes. You dont want super runny soup. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are falling apart.

Blend the soup with the stick wand or put it in the blender in batches. Dont forget to take the bay leaf out before you blend! The soup I made tonight decided to hide the bay leaf and I blended it up in the soup. I had to dish out the little peices. OOPS! Its ok though.

Thats basically it. Put a few drops of liquid smoke to taste if you want. Add salt and pepper if you like. This soup is great with some crunchy sourdough bread. Brian likes to have peanutbutter toast with it. He is kind of weird/cool like that. Enjoy!