Everything in the Pot Leek Soup

Leek Soup, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This was a "clear out the fridge" soup. It is a basic leek soup with some embellishments. I started with a tablespoon of olive oil in the pot and threw in a chopped stalk of celery, a chopped spring onion, and chopped green garlic. I let this sweat for a couple of minutes and then added the diced potatoes (we had a mix of fingerling and russett--about 8 very small potatoes). Then about 5 cups of water went in along with some kombu seaweed (that is the dark green thing you see in the soup--it gets taken out at the end). As that came to a boil, I chopped up some shiitake mushrooms very fine and chopped some chives, green onions and a large leek. All of this went into the pot as the water started to boil. I lowered the heat and cooked for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes began to fall apart. Oh, I salted to taste after each addition of ingredients. When the soup was done, the green color had faded a bit, I was surprised by how tasty the soup was--I suspect the kombu because every soup that has kombu in it ends up being very good. In fact, we are in the habit of adding kombu to just about any soup--it kind of emulates MSG in that it really boosts the flavor (but without the headache). You could make this soup with pretty much any ingredients added to the basic leek and potato base. Carrots, regular onions, kale or other leafy greens, cabbage--these would all work.