This is a veloutée of the sort eaten in France (in my own experience). I think we would say a “creamy soup” here. In any case, the French consider this soup quite pedestrian, but it beats anything I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant here.

This recipe started out for leek soup, but has become my vegetable soup. I mention when this happens.

Ingredients

	4	leeks
	1½ lbs	potatoes
	1 tbsp	sweet cream butter
	1 or 2 cloves	minced garlic (optional)
	1 small	white onion (optional)
	1 chunk	banana squash (optional)
	1 liter	milk
	1 liter	chicken stock
	—	fresh ground pepper
	—	sea or kosher salt (to taste)

Preparation

1. Prepare the edible parts of the leeks (white and some of the green). Chop and sauté them in olive oil or a little butter. Other aromates may be added at this time (shallots, onion, garlic, etc.). Be careful, though, onions and garlic are very strong and willl result in a completely different soup.

2. Peel and dice the potatoes and squash. Place them in the pot with stock, adding salt and pepper. You can add some carrots and celery to move the soup towards simply a vegetable soup, but be careful of the amount of carrot you use because of color and flavor.

3. Bring all to a boil, then reduce the fire to low. Leave it to simmer for an hour.

4. Pass the soup through a blender (or mostly the solid parts if you have multiplied this recipe beyond what your blender will hold) until fine and smooth. Reheat if necessary. One of those Bosch hand-held immersion blenders works even better.

5. Serve with additional butter or cream to taste. (I haven’t had to because it’s creamy enough.)