Potato Leek Soup

Since starting Door to Door Organics, I have a new found appreciation for these:

Leeks!  I think my next leek adventure will be sauteed as a side dish since I think they're delicious.  Tonight, we tried a new recipe from Alton Brown for Potato Leek Soup. 
It got 2 thumbs up from Ryan and I, but 2 thumbs down from Maddie. 

What will you need?

Plus, obviously your leeks!  I could have tried to go more natural with this and make my own veggie broth, but we just did not have the time.  Instead, I picked up some broth that had this beautiful ingredients list:

Ingredients:

1 pound leeks, cleaned and dark green sections removed, approximately 4 to 5 medium
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Heavy pinch kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
14 ounces, approximately 3 small, Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced small
1 quart vegetable broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon snipped chives

To start off, chop up your leeks small.  One tip is to put your chopped up leeks into a bowl of water.  This will wash the inside of them and get all the dirt out.  

Just skim them off the top of the bowl and you're good to go! 

In a 6 quart pan melt your 3 tbs of unsalted butter (I used salted butter and skipped the kosher salt), then throw your kosher salt and leeks in and sweat them on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Turn down the heat and cook the leeks until tender, or about 25 minutes.  While the leeks are cooking, peel and chop up your potatoes into small pieces.

 Now add the veggie broth and chopped up potatoes.  Bring it to a boil with medium high heat, then turn down to low and cook until the potatoes are tender, or about 45 minutes then turn off the heat.

Now it's time to pull out your immersion blender!  I love this thing!  Blend your soup until it's smooth...

Stir in the 1 c. heavy cream, 1 c. buttermilk, 1/2 tsp white pepper and tbs of chopped chives.

I ended up adding a bit more white pepper and salt at the end to taste.  And voila your soup is ready to serve!!!

Overall, I liked it.  The buttermilk added a bit of tang to the soup that you don't normally see.  Next time I don't think I'll blend it to smooth.  I like my soups to have a bit more texture.  But, the flavoring was good!