I unintentionally upgraded the potato leek soup and pleasantly surprised my taste buds

Ingredient inspiration: dirty leeks and broccoli

Have you ever subscribed to a farm box delivery? Perhaps something like the CSA farm box or Imperfect foods? There’s generally two flavors of such boxes. One is where you chose the specific vegetables or fruits or herbs you want that week. Another is where you are surprised with whatever the farmer decides to send you. Guess which one I love getting? (a hint here)

Of course, the surprise! The free style home chef in me goes giddy over not knowing what I’m going to get. It feels like getting Christmas presents every week! This element of no planning involved whatsoever and scratching my head for what to cook for dinner that evening is such an adrenaline-inducing rush. My delivery usually comes on Monday afternoons/evenings and I eagerly look forward to the doorbell ringing all day and opening my presents for the week.

Now, I can completely understand that for the planner in you, this might drive you nuts. The not-knowing of what to make with the farm box, what other ingredients you need to supplement with, and how long it will take before you can put dinner on the table can be full of nail biting anxiety. In fact, for most other aspects of my life (e.g. work projects), this would drive me bananas too. But not for the farm box. I get so intrigued and satisfied by the farm box ritual and find it thoroughly challenging and fulfilling. I LOVE:

• the anticipation of needing to come up with an idea for a dinner dish quickly

• using supplementary ingredients I already have in the pantry

• executing on the new under-thought vision so dinner is not served at midnight

One such week I received many greens in my farm box. I had a gorgeous head of clustered green trees (broccoli), dirt filled leeks (love the earthiness of this!), ok looking russet potatoes, the freshest chives I had ever gotten (they smelled a-m-a-z-i-n-g), crispy apples, and beautiful chard. The contents of this farm box filled the kitchen counter with a lush green-ness that warmed my soul.

But now the clock is ticking. What do I make from this for dinner? Potato leek soup kept coming into my mind. It’s a relatively popular soup that I have probably have consumed a handful of times. I remember it being comforting given there’s potatoes and cream in it. However, I have mixed feelings about cream-based soups or cream-based dishes. While it sounds comforting, I’m not the biggest fan of cream (insert shock emoji). I didn’t grow up with using or consuming cream and my stomach certainly doesn’t enjoy it. Cream feels like a brick entered my stomach and decided to make a house there with the white picket fence and all. So, clearly, I was not going to make the cream-based potato leak soup for dinner.

The leeks, the broccoli, the chives, the potatoes, the chard, the apples where starting at me, sparring with my mind, daring me to give up, unblinkingly wondering whether I’ll chose the path of least resistance (toss them in the fridge) or the path of most resistance (laboriously cook them!). What…..don’t you also engage in mental warfare with your vegetables? Since it was a cold night with so much snow outside, I decided that I was going to make a soup after all. However, I was going to use another source to add the creaminess in the soup. Thanks to my advantages of being born into a north Indian family, I always have a super nutritious and delicious source of creaminess: lentils! And slowly the recipe of my soup started to take form.

It was going to be a potato - leek - broccoli - lentil - garlic - chive soup (the chard and apples would have to wait for another creation). I cut up the leek stalks into halves, and then into thirds, rinsed them with copious amounts of water multiple times to get rid of any dirt, and then used the food processor attachments to finely chop the stalks. I cut up the potatoes in a food processor too (weird shapes came out of my attachment but no matter), chopped up the broccoli and grabbed half a cup of red/orange + yellow lentil mix (red/orange = split masoor and yellow = split moong). I always have garlic ready to go in the freezer, thanks to my hack.

Side note: one day I’ll write a post about all kinds of north Indian lentils used in my kitchen. The variety is rich, diverse, nutritious, and delicious. I’m constantly fascinated!

The cooking of this could not be more simple, soups are so easy. I heated up some olive oil in a deep pot, added the leeks and sautéed/cooked them until they were soft enough. Next, I added the garlic, potatoes, lentils, salt, water and simmered them until everything was soft (~15-20 min). In the last 5 mins, I added the broccoli. Once that was soft, I pureed it all, adjusted the salt and pepper, and finished it with lemon juice. (Perhaps you already picked it up from the blender photo, I made nearly 9 cups of this soup. So… we ate this soup for like 4 days).

The vibrant green color and heavenly aroma of this soup was inviting me to plate it aesthetically. I ladled generous quantity of soup in a bowl, sprinkled it with za’atar (lemony herby mediterranean concoction), attempted to daintily add tiny dollops of plain yogurt, and criss crossed this with some chili oil. I would say I spectacularly failed at the aesthetics (cue laughter tear emoji). Eh, I tried.

The left bowl is how I pretended to eat it. The right bowl is how I actually ate it. Lots more za’atar, lots more chili oil, lots more yogurt, and some chives. If you can get past the lackluster aesthetics, I promise you this bowl of upgraded soup was heavenly, my taste buds were singing with the surprise of it all. Each bite tasted like a lush green forest that was both creamy and textured, had herbaceous aroma and flavor, balanced with hints of lemon-iness and a subtle kick of spice. This soup was the ultimate comfort, with an excellent upgrade! Don’t believe me? Try it yourself!

PSA: you’ve gotta start lentil-fying all your soups, you’ll thank me after every bite!

Dish Debrief:

• Is this my winner or disaster? definitely a win!

• How would I rate this dish out of 10? 9 out of 10

• What would I change next time? perhaps add more lentils, make smaller quantities (lol)

• Would I make this again? Absolutely