Leek and potato soup

First, I'd like to say Happy Valentine's day to all who are celebrating! I myself am more hung on the idea of honoring the day of wine (st. Tryphon) as it evokes many funny memories from my childhood. I and my family together with my uncles' families would go to the vineyard, where the kids (us) would play and the adults would drink some good red wine. Most years, the snow covered ground and frozen garden pond provided lost of entertainment and funny stories. Now, it's just me and my sister, sipping some red wine bought from the local store and laughing about all those past moments. Traditions, what will we do without them?

I've been thinking a bit about the blog and how I want to proceed with it. Since, I'm not quite fond of writing all that much during the week and my posts seem somewhat unfinished to me, I decided that it shall be a Sunday edition, when I would take my time in posting step by step recipe explanations with more pictures (hopefully better quality too) and a little more attention to the writing part too. I'm also going to try doing double-language posts (English and Danish) as I need to establish a routine practicing my Danish. Finally, I'm gonna keep the blog strictly 'food' related. If I have the patience to listen through skype explanations of gardening - growing vegetables and fruit - from my dad, I'd also love to include these. He has a life-long experience and lots of best-practice advice he's been giving to his friends and integrating in his work, so I think it will be a great way to keep his wisdom through an online shared note-taking. I hope you're interested. I'm going to reinvent the personal style part of it in a separate blog some time later on, as I've changed its concept a bit and I'm not ready to delve into it now, but if you're interested, there will be some bits and pieces of what I'd choose in my Pinterest account.

Unbelievable as it is, I managed to write an entire post without the tiniest hint of the title. So, here it comes. I checked out a very interesting recipe a couple of days ago. Reading just the name "leek and potato soup" immediately caught my attention, as both ingredients are on the top list of this season's food and I love them both. Here is the recipe. The author gives plenty of information on how the recipe could be modified for all sorts of diets and explains the process with beautiful pictures. You should check it out!

The only changes I made were that I used only 10 g olive oil and substituted the double cream with cream fraiche. It was absolutely lovely. If I had tomato salad, it would have been even lovelier. :)

Rice noodles and eggplant soup

I've had two eggplants laying around half a week, so today it was their turn to go in the pot. First, I was thinking about baking them and making a salad, but the weather has been rather chilly and we needed something warm and cosy. I hadn't made cream soup before and I was very curious how that would turn out. Now that I have tasted it (divine combination of flavors, by the way), I realize that I like too much having something to chew besides the noodles. :) What kind of soups do you prefer?

Ingredients


rice noodles
1 onion
1 leek
2 red peppers
2 eggplants
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
red pepper
curry
salt
olive oil
parsley
3.5 cups vegetable stock


Method


1. Peel and cut in medium sized pieces the eggplants. Leave them in salted water for 15 min. Boil them until soft. Strain and set them aside.
2. Dice the onion and the leek. Saute them for a couple of minutes. 
3. Throw in the chopped peppers and add the tomatoes. Cook for 5 min. and add the hot vegetable stock. Cook until the peppers are almost ready. Then add the eggplants and the spices. 
4. When ready, remove from the stove and let the soup rest for a bit. Blend until smooth.
5. Boil the rice noodles.


Serve the eggplant soup with rice noodles. 


I should figure out how to make it, so there are less bubbles after blending. Any ideas?


We thought the rice noodles are better on their own, while the soup goes greatly with some sprinkled feta cheese or freshly baked bread.


Velbekomme! (Bon appetit! in Danish)