Hand-Blended Goodness

Whenever I am presented with the choice of having a broth-based soup or a thick, blended one, I always go with the latter — there’s just something so much more satisfying about a bowl of warm, blended goodness.

Butternut squash soup is one of my favourite soups to eat. So last fall, after doing a Google search for recipes, I came across a butternut squash & pear soup recipe that sounded perfect. While searching around, the one thing that I noticed with all the recipes was that they all called for the use of a blender. I, of course, did not own any sort of kitchen blending contraption, but I figured I could work around it. I had a potato masher. I had a strainer. Who needs a blender, right?

So I bought all the ingredients needed and started preparing the squash, pears and other vegetables by cutting them into small cubes. I cooked everything down in the broth, and soon it became time to blend.

The following is how I worked around the whole ‘blending’ step — however, instead of 1 easy step, it now became 4 steps:

• Step 1: Mash the vegetables in the broth until smooth. Or as close to smooth as possible.
• Step 2: Press the soupy mashed vegetable mixture through a strainer, while being careful not to splash yourself.
• Step 3: Dispose of the excess mashed vegetables left in the bottom of the strainer.
• Step 4: Pour the liquid that went through the strainer back into the pot.

It wasn’t easy. And it was incredibly messy. I had to do this in batches too, so I had to repeat the above steps at least 3 times. In the end, the body of the soup was somewhat lost in this whole process. It tasted just fine, but the texture wasn’t right.

So last weekend while shopping with Andrea, (months after my butternut squash soup attempt) I FINALLY invested in an inexpensive $8.97 hand blender. I was ecstatic! I couldn’t wait to try it out. I’ve been trying to come up with excuses to make some sort of blended soup recipe all week long. Last night, I finally went and bought some potatoes and leeks. The soup recipe was easy to follow and I made some additions/adjustments of my own, as I do with most recipes.

Soon it came to blend. I took my blender out of it’s box, gently cleaned the blades, and plugged it into the wall. With a touch of a button, my chunky potato-leek mixture became this gorgeous, velvety, creamy-white soup. (I did leave a few chunky bits in to give it some texture though)

And to give it even more texture? I topped off each bowl of soup with crispy bacon, homemade croutons, and fresh chives from my garden. It was delicious.

Keep reading for the recipe & enjoy.
-Allison

Potato & Leek Soup Recipe

INGREDIENTS
* 3-4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
* 4 cups chicken broth
* 4 slices of bacon
* 3 leeks, sliced (only use white and light green parts of the leek)
* 1 cup heavy cream (I used half and half)
* 1 sprig of rosemary (optional)

* Fresh chives (garnish)
* Croutons (garnish)

DIRECTIONS

1. Place bacon in a large saucepan or stockpot. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons of grease and set aside. Sautee the leeks in the pot with the reserved bacon grease 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Add potatoes, broth and rosemary & bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

3. Remove rosemary sprig from the soup. Remove the soup from the heat and use an immersion/stick blender to blend the soup in the pot or ladle the soup into a blender, 1 cup at a time.

4. Place pot back onto the heat. Add cream to soup and reheat. Add salt & pepper to taste. If you prefer your soup to be less thick, add more stock at this point to thin it out and reheat.

5. Ladle the soup into bowls and add crumbled bacon, croutons & chives for garnish & additional texture.