Easy Vegan Leek & Potato Soup

Yesterday, in a moment of domestic inspiration, I decided to get back into cooking and made my first soup of the season. Soup is undoubtedly my favourite meal to make; not only because it it delicious and nutritious, but it's so easy to make - and I'm all about being lazy when it comes to preparing food (hence the lack of cooking on a regular basis). But I think I rediscover this fact every time I get back into cooking: it's a bit like running; you forget how good it makes you feel until you're actually doing it. 

I also enjoy cooking a lot more when the weather is a bit cooler. During summer I'm all about fruit and smoothies and anything that doesn't require leaning over a hot stove when I'm already sweating bullets. So coming into the cooler months, I'm excited to make some of those warm-me-up, comfort meals.

Here's my recipe for the potato and leek soup I made yesterday adapted from the '500 Vegan Dishes' cookbook:

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 3 large leeks, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 3 medium potatoes, chopped
• 1L vegetable stock (I used Massel stock because it's gluten free)
• 1 bay leaf
• sea salt and black pepper
• 500ml soy milk
• 120ml soya cream (I used King Land cream cheese, about 2-3 tbsp)
• ground nutmeg, to garnish

Method:

Heat the oil in the pan and add the leeks and garlic (you can buy crushed garlic in a jar but I highly recumbent fresh cloves, you'll be able to taste the difference). Let simmer for about 5 minutes and keep stirring the leek so it doesn't burn.

Add the chopped potatoes, vegetable stock, salt and plenty of black pepper. Add the bay leaf (this is actually important, I have made it with and without the bay leaf and it definitely makes the soup taste better). Bring to boil and then heat on low for 30 minutes.

When the vegetables are nice and soft, blend them with a blender or immersion blender until it's nice and smooth and creamy, you might have to do this in two batches depending on the size of your blender. If you like a little bit of texture don't blend the second batch for as long and you should still have some chunks of potato and leek. I actually brought a blender for this, I got this one from Target for $30 and it works really well, just as well as any expensive branded blender.

Pour the soup back into the pot and heat on low. Add the soy milk and cream, some more salt and pepper to taste and heat it through. Serve garnished with nutmeg if you like (I personally prefer without). It would also taste really nice with some fresh bread rolls, my neighbour actually brought some around fresh this morning!

I love learning new recipes and experimenting with healthy, vegan food. Let me know in the comments if you have any favourite, easy to make, healthy vegan dishes.