Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup

Recipe by Robin

I came to Santa Cruz quite a few years ago as a braless young vegetarian idealist in search of good veggie camaraderie and foods, among other things. At the time, there were so many vegetarians here that none of the natural food stores carried meats as they all do now. I moved into a cooperative vegetarian household with the agreement that I would cook for the household once per week. I’ve always been an experimental cook, but because I was cooking for others and experiments can go very wrong, I started to consult cookbooks.

No-milk Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup

Recipe by S. Folkart from Community Gardens of Santa Cruz

One of the first recipes I learned to make when I moved to Santa Cruz in the late 1970s was potato leek soup. I had never seen, much less eaten, a leek before I came to California, but I had read plenty about them in various cookbooks. Although I’ve already published my recipe for Potato Leek Soup, I recently found this recipe in a 1979 local cookbook, The Vegetable Gardener’s Cookbook, published by Community Gardens of Santa Cruz, to which I belonged at the time. Although I did tweak a couple of things, credit goes to Community Gardens member S. Folkart for the original no-milk-or-cream recipe.

Vichyssoise: French Potato Leek Soup

Yukon Gold Potatoes = Mellow Yellow Color

Recipe by Robin

Neither my Santa Cruz style potato leek soup nor Sylvia Folkart’s no-milk potato leek soup seemed appropriate for a Bastille Day potluck last week. Both recipes minimize two ingredients that French chefs love: butter and cream! Also, my earlier recipes were for hot potato leek soup, whereas vichyssoise is always served chilled. And of course, since classic vichyssoise is very smooth, my usual unpeeled potatoes ne sont pas acceptables. A Facebook friend quipped, “I can’t even pronounce vichyssoise, much less make it!” Say “vee shee SWAZ” (hear pronunciation). The final s is pronounced, and accent is on last syllable.

Week 16 Menu Plan

Apricots from our Tree

Featuring potatoes, leeks, collards, green beans, large radishes, zucchini, berries

Potatoes again this week, and they keep getting bigger. Luckily, we are still getting leeks and enjoying the simple goodness of potato-leek soup with and without milk. Perhaps I’ll change it up with some fresh marjoram from the garden this week. Our bounty of green beans this week are inspiring me to make a healthy bean casserole--just like Mom used to make, but without the canned fried onions and cream of mushroom soup. I’m combining two recipes (one for onion topping and one for bean part), with a few tweaks of my own and will share if it’s post-worthy.

Week 3, Veggie List & Ideas

Preserved foods left over from CSA winter share

It's Week 3 of our 2011 CSA farm share and we're more or less keeping up with the veggies. Except for a few. We have some leftover radicchio, onions and leeks. We’re getting more of each of these this week, so it's time to commit to working with these foods so we'll eat them. I bought some potatoes last week at the Watsonville Farmers Market where I was playing music. The potato leek soup I was envisioning at the time didn’t get made (I used the leeks in a stir fry with bok choy) so this week we’re definitely on for the soup.

Braised Leeks Mexican (ish) Style

Serve Hot or Cold

Recipe adapted from Mexican Everyday

Three weeks of leeks, and then some! Leeks are one of our CSA’s most prolific crops, week after week, and their size requires considerable real estate in the refrigerator. They typically need to pair with other veggies, as in Potato Leek Soup, or with meats or rice. They’re not like broccoli, chard, or carrots. You can’t use up mass quantities of them by simply steaming. My attempts at baking them in various ways have failed: witness the cheesy leek bake. Leeks keep piling up, week after week. Clearly I’m not doing a good job of what my friend Barbara (hi, Barbara!) calls “refrigerator maintenance.”

Week 14 Menu Plan

Young Potatoes Destined to Join Young Leeks in Soup

Featuring potatoes, baby leeks, spinach, summer squash, cilantro & giant radishes

I can’t count the number of leeks we got from our CSA farm share last winter. I do know that by the end I’d made the world’s worst leek dish, and didn’t even feel bad about wasting the leeks...because we had still more. In March I thought we’d never finish them and never want to cook with them again, but this week I’m thrilled to get the first baby leeks of the year. Especially since we also got young potatoes and I found an old recipe for vegan potato leek soup.

Week 15 Veggie List & Ideas

On this 15th week of our CSA season, because our weather has been cooler than usual, we are still enjoying late spring veggies. We’ll be getting the first of the green beans (we hope, as broccoli was substituted last week!), my husband’s favorite. Looks like the first of the young collard green too, and I serve them with Asian-style ginger sauce. Like last week, we will make a delicious non-dairy potato-leek soup that uses just the tiniest bit of butter and garlic, and hopefully perfect the recipe enough to post.

Top 12 Seasonal Eating Posts on 12/12/12

Most Popular in Person but not on Blog

Readers' Favorites

On this auspicious day, we experience the last repeating-number month/day/year of our lifetime. It’s true that 11/11/11 was a bit more consistent and dramatic than 12/12/12.  But, as a former colleague told me years ago, it’s important to acknowledge completion (he was talking about appreciating the last bite of a cookie, but I'm applying his concept to the end of an era). On this occasion I’d like to share the 12 Seasonal Eating posts that have been most popular with readers. Since I only have stats for the top 10, I’ll throw in a couple of how-to posts that have been popular this December. Have fun on 12/12/12, and a special happy birthday to longtime friend Susi and anyone else who’s celebrating their natal day today.

Week 15 Menu Plan

First Apricots from our Tree

Featuring potatoes, baby beets, baby leeks, basil, cilantro, and baby fennel

Lots of herbs this week and trying to think of a new use for cilantro.  If anyone has a good salsa recipe, please post it to share! I’m thinking of making pesto, either my almond variety or my original Italian recipe from Todd’s mom. One more try at the no-milk-product variety of potato leek soup and it will be ready to share.  Bruce wants to make a cannolini bean “tabouli style” salad—go figure because he doesn’t like tabouli (maybe it’s the bulgar). Canned cannolini beans taste “canny” to me (too many cans in this sentence!), so I’m going to experiment with cooking them in the slow cooker. There’s a lot of contradictory advice about this on the web, so wish me luck!

Colcannon with Bacon

Serve with Bacon, Ham, Canadian Bacon or Sausage

Recipe by Robin

Colcannon! I’ve never made it and wasn’t planning on it. But our weekly food shares have delivered cabbage and potatoes for weeks. I’m not keeping up cooking-wise. Plus, St. Paddy’s day is right around the corner. I’m usually way to busy to coordinate an Irish treat on this holiday, but colcannon can be as simple as the two main ingredients plus butter and a few scallions. Proportions are forgiving, depending on quantities on hand. And yes! It’s perfect comfort food for chilly winter into spring weather!

Week 22 Veggie List & Ideas

Our First Apples: Worms & Bugs Removed

The last day of August already, and Labor Day on its way. Although it didn’t get very warm here in coastal California this year, summer is winding down. Days are shorter, and leaves are beginning to turn red and gold already. September and October are often our sunniest months, which hopefully will prolong the tomato season that just started. Bruce picked our first windfall apples off the ground and removed various insects. They’re tart and will make great applesauce and apple cakes. Stay tuned for fall recipes!

August Veggies and Recipes

Bees Spending the Night Away from the Hive

Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy

Golden days of August are perfect for vacation, whether it’s two weeks away from home or a few hours in the backyard hammock. First harvest has passed, and many more fruits and veggies are ripening for our enjoyment this month. In the midst of this abundance, sunlight takes on a new slant by month’s end, foreshadowing the approach of darker days in the seasonal cycle. Like our ancestors, we might consider preserving August’s bounty for both economic and culinary reasons, while eating all that we like of our summer favorites.

Week 17 Menu Plan

Pick up Some Blackberries When You Go Out

Featuring radishes, berries, apricots, green beans, potatoes and purslane!

Instead of red potatoes this week, we received the first yellows of the year. My fellow blogger Mira over at Grains and More posted a recipe for Purslane Soup that I want to try, possibly without the peas because we don’t have them. Plenty of arugula or greens, though, if that would work—NOT!

July Veggies and Recipes

Bee Friend Helping Make Poppyseed

'Tis Now the Youth of Your Summer

In living and eating by the seasons we appreciate the wealth and gifts of every month, but there’s no denying that July is extra-abundant in the northern hemisphere. Long days with plenty of sunlight inspire us to be outside more, and warm temperatures encourage relaxation and enjoyment of outdoor meals with friends and family. The bounty of fruits and vegetables in our gardens and on local farms make it easy to eat local foods, create new recipes, and share food with others. 

July Menus and Recipes

In Neighbor's Yard

“Hot July Brings Cooling Showers, Apricots & Gillyflowers”*

I must admit that I’m a stress-eater. I started this pattern during the frequent rocky times in my early adolescence, and continued it through most of my life. The pattern resurged most recently during my downsizing by management and my consequent departure from my day job, as I labored over the choice between reliable income and taking care of myself. Scientists have shown that eating carbohydrates stimulates serotonin production in the brain, which reduces depression, normalizes sleep patterns, and generally makes one feel better. I’ve never met a carb I didn’t like (either starch or sugar), and during the recent past have relied heavily on them at the expense of eating more healthful, fiber-filled foods (although oddly enough I also consumed a lot of kale, which I also craved!) And yes, I did gain weight, and so did my husband. He never spies a carb he doesn’t like, especially if his wife is eating it. This month, we’ve agreed to plan menus with lighter, more veggie-oriented foods. With our garden and CSA both providing fruit and veggie bounty, this decision is “seasonally correct.”

Week 32 Veggie List & Menu

A Bounty of Butternuts

For days I’ve been making varieties of herbed tomato soup (see bottom of linked page).  With a dozen or two tomatoes left from this season, I’d like to do something special, perhaps a small batch of homemade catsup or just an all-tomato salad. On to the fall veggies: plenty of greens, more cabbage and beets, Brussels sprouts, leeks, onions, potatoes, and winter squash.

11/11/11 is coming this week, a palindromic date that occurs once every 100 years. In numerology, 11 can represent a channel to the subconscious, a doorway to the inner self. Some also say that 11:11 is the symbol of spirit guardians, a group of 1111 celestial beings who look after us earthlings. Perhaps I’ll have an amazing insight, or get zapped by a celestial do-gooder, at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11. Or, maybe I will just have some fun appreciating the number and our lucky space in time.

I’m going to have a second try at recreating my (long deceased) Gram’s applesauce cake this week—I overcooked last week’s batch and it was a little tough to cut (hungry musicians enjoyed it at the potluck anyway). I’d like to try more apple syrup, since we got apple juice in our CSA share, and perhaps roast some root veggies with it. Three small butternut squash are perfect candidates for microwaving. First of the season’s Brussels sprouts are harbingers of winter. But can you believe we got one last basket of strawberries (a bit pale, but strawberries nonetheless)? Live Earth Farm, you are awesome in the true sense of the word!

This week’s veggies:

Gala apples (lots)
Beets

Beet greens

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage (large green)
Collard greens
Green beans
Kale
Leeks
Onions

Yellow Finn potatoes

Butternut squash

Strawberries

Apple Juice

Leftovers: leeks, rutabagas, beets, large cabbage, cranberry-orange relish, roast turkey thighs, carrots, tomatoes, 1 hot pepper, applesauce, cranberries, butternut squash, herbed tomato soup, oregano, basil

Wednesday

leftover roast turkey

steamed green beans

leftover herbed tomato soup with hot peppers

Thursday

leftover roast turkey

steamed Brussels sprouts

cranberry-orange relish

make applesauce cake

Friday

veggie burgers

potato leek soup

quick Asian-inspired collard greens

steamed butternut squash

strawberry crisp?

Saturday

Lunch: catered after Holt’s urn-filling ceremony

Dinner:

fish with orange ponzu sauce

tomato salad with basil and oregano

steamed beet greens

steamed butternutsquash

Sunday

Lunch:

tacos or veggie burgers

kale “hot salad”

tomato salad

Dinner:

roast turkey thighs

cider-glazed roasted root veggies

baked butternutsquash (large)

cranberry-orange relish

Monday

beet & cabbage borscht

leftover turkey and veggies

Tuesday

leftovers

April Veggies and Recipes

April Dogwood in my Yard

New Year in the Garden

As I said last year, April is one of my favorite months. Flowers burst into bloom in such rapid succession that we lose track of those whose blooms have faded. My husband built a cold frame for our garden last week, and tiny lettuces, beans, squash, and herbs are up already. We just received the first produce box of the year from our CSA, Live Earth Farm. Despite all of the springtime growth activity, our local veggie and fruit choices are still somewhat limited. Yet we’re assured, as days grow longer, of more variety and more food bounty soon. In the meantime, Santa Cruz locavores can check out Santa Cruz Local Foods.

Oven Braised Parsnips and Carrots

Braised and Garnished Parnsips and Carrots

Recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking

“I love your cooking, Robin,” said my friend Joy at dinner a week before Christmas last year. She was specifically talking about this dish, which Bruce and I served with roast turkey, coleslaw, and cranberry sauce. “You know how to make healthy things taste good.”  Sadly, this was the last meal we shared. A chronic illness put her into sudden decline the next week, and she passed away shortly afterwards. I will always cherish my memory of our last dinner, and how we attended the Christmas carol singalong with Boomeria’s 2500-pipe organ afterwards. Let’s join in celebration with our friends, while we have the opportunity.

Week 33 Veggie List & Menu

Whimsical Apple

This week marks the end of our CSA’s regular share season. Thank you, Live Earth Farm, for the tasty organic veggies, fun community events, and the easy system for donating our share to food banks when we’re out of town. We’ve signed up for a LEF winter share as well, and pick-ups will start December 1. Next week is Thanksgiving, and although I won’t post formal menus, I’ll continue posting recipes, particularly whatever I make for the Thanksgiving potluck. Hopefully I’ll get an inspiration for that soon. A third large green cabbage in as many weeks means you’ll likely see some sort of cabbage recipe/s as well.