This is a simple, homey soup with just some basic flavors - not a lot of fancy herbs or spices, just the basics. Onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and the vegetables. And with a simple shortcut, its super quick.

Leeks look like an overgrown scallion and have a mild oniony taste, so you don’t have to start by sautéing onions for this soup…unless you just really like onions. Leeks are a little quirky to work with - the bottom part of a leek, the white part, is grown underground, so the dirt gets inside the layers. With leeks, you cut first, then submerge in water and rinse very well to get the dirt all out.

I used leftover mashed potatoes that I had frozen to make this. The mashed potatoes had spinach and mushrooms in a buttermilk alfredo sauce (this one), so if you wanted to make it the full “Potato, spinach, mushroom, and leek soup” (which I highly recommend), just sautee the mushrooms and spinach along with the leeks.

Recipe here

Potato and Leek (and Spinach and Mushroom) Soup

- Three cups of mashed potatoes
- Two leeks, sliced and washed
- Two cloves of garlic, diced
- Two cups of chicken broth, or as much to make it as liquidy as you want
- Salt, pepper

- Heat some olive oil in a soup pot. Saute garlic for a couple of minutes.
- Add the leeks, salt them well, and saute until soft. (spinach and mushrooms too, if desired)
- Add mashed potatoes (in my case, spinach and mushroom mashed potatoes).
- Add chicken broth to thin out to desired consistency. Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper as needed.
- When the soup is hot, ladle into bowls and garnish with croutons.

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