Green Leek Soup

Ingredients

3 leeks

4 potatoes

200 g butter

loaf

salt

sour cream

First, take the leeks. Peel them, trim off the roots, remove the outer leaves if they're wilted, and trim off the green tops, leaving about 5-10 cm of green. We'll only use this for the soup.

Wash the leeks thoroughly. To do this, separate the green parts, as they tend to accumulate a lot of soil. Cut into large slices.

Place in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to the boil. Let the leeks simmer for about 20 minutes before adding the potatoes.

Cut the potatoes into large chunks. If the tubers are small, you can add them whole. After the leeks have been boiling for 20 minutes, add the potatoes. Now you can add some salt, but we'll add the final salt later.

While the vegetables are cooking, fry the croutons. Melt a little butter in a frying pan. Cut the loaf into cubes. It's easier to use already sliced loaf, or day-old loaf.

Now be careful, because even over medium heat, the croutons tend to burn, so stir them regularly, and while stirring, add more and more pieces of butter. Save a small piece of butter; we'll need it later.

The potatoes are cooked, now we need to purée the soup. Previously, special devices were sold for this purpose, but now we have a blender, which makes the job much easier. If you cooked the soup in a large amount of water, pour off some of the water so that it just barely covers the vegetables. If the soup is too thick, we'll return the poured broth.

Puree thoroughly to remove any remaining fibers. Return the saucepan to the stove, set it over medium or even low heat, bring it to a simmer, and then add a small piece of butter, about half a tablespoon.

Now add salt—this soup can use quite a bit—and check the consistency; it should be about the same as fermented baked milk. While the soup is on the stove, stir it regularly, as it tends to brown on the bottom. If the soup is too thick, thin it with boiling water or the reserved broth, if you used any. If it's too thin, well, that happens too. When the soup cools, excess water will collect on the surface, above the puree, and then you can carefully skim it off.

Ladle the soup into bowls, adding sour cream to each bowl.

 And some croutons (tip: don't pour too many croutons at once, they get soggy pretty quickly. Throw in small handfuls, and add more as you eat them. Just leave the finished croutons on the table so everyone can help themselves.

Enjoy!