Bright Green Leek Soup
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Ingredients
- 6medium leeks, about 3 pounds
- 4tablespoons butter
- Salt and pepper
- 4garlic cloves, minced
- Pinch of cayenne
- ½cup rice
- 8cups hot chicken broth or water
- 10ounces baby spinach, washed
- Grated nutmeg, to taste
- ½cup crème fraîche
- 2tablespoons thinly sliced chives, for garnish
- 2tablespoons thinly sliced tarragon, for garnish
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
296 calories; 14 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 10 grams protein; 1135 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Trim leeks of outer layer and stems. Chop white and tender green parts into ½-inch chunks (discard tough gray-green parts). Soak leeks in a large bowl of lukewarm water, swishing to dislodge sand. Drain and soak again, then lift leeks from water, leaving any sediment behind.
- Step 2
Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat. Add leeks and season well with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until leeks are wilted, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Step 3
Add garlic, cayenne and rice and cook for 1 minute. Add hot broth and bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Simmer until rice is very soft, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely before proceeding.
- Step 4
Using a blender, purée the raw spinach with the cooled soup mixture. Strain the soup through a fine-meshed sieve, discarding any fibrous solids. Adjust seasoning and add a little grated nutmeg. Thin soup with broth or water if necessary.
- Step 5
Heat soup through just before serving, to preserve the bright green color. Garnish each serving with a tablespoon of crème fraîche and a sprinkling of chives and tarragon.
Private Notes
Comments
Instead of rice, try a small, chopped Yukon gold potato (about 1/2 a cup). You'll get a nice creamy texture with a bit of the Yukon gold's butteriness.
This soup is beautiful and delicious. Next time I will add just a tablespoon or two of raw rice. 1/2 cup of rice made it quite thick - difficult to puree and impossible to strain.
This is a very nice and elegant soup to start off a French meal. The flavor is delicate so I felt adding 4 cloves of garlic would overpower the flavor of the leeks so I added 2 cloves, and I'm glad I did. As others have said, 1/2 cup rice will make it quite thick, I had to add nearly 2 additional cups of broth to thin it out. 1/4 cup rice would probably be plenty. The spinach gives this soup a gorgeous bright green color and the creme fraiche is definitely a must. Will make this again!
I used a potato and it worked well. I also added half a lemon which I felt was critical to the taste of the soup, it needed a bit of acid to offset the sweetness of the leeks. I puréed the soup and then put it through the finest mesh of my food mill and it worked like a charm. The end result looked just like the photo and there was enough to serve 10 people as a light first course (in teacups) alongside Parmesan crisps.
Excellent soup! It was very flavorful and pretty. I loved using the basmati rice as a thickener. We strained 1/4 of the soup and gave up. Really, there is no need for that step as I think it looks better and has a better texture when just blended well. A keeper.
I only had four leeks, so I decided to roast three small eggplants (remove the skin). Goodness gracious it was fantastic.