StarterAI

Vegetable Cream Soup

Name: Vegetable Cream Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Other
Ingredients: 400 g Potatoes; 250 g Carrot; 200 g Leek; 120 g Celery stalks; 150 g Onion; 3 cloves Garlic cloves; 1.2 l Vegetable stock; 150 ml Heavy cream; 40 g Unsalted butter; 20 ml Extra-virgin olive oil; 1 leaves Bay leaves; 1 g Nutmeg; 9 g Fine sea salt; 2 g Ground black pepper; 15 g Flat-leaf parsley

Leek, celery, carrot and potato softened in butter and simmered in stock, then blended smooth and loosened with cream.

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 30 min
Difficulty: Very easy

About this dish

Every cuisine with a cold season has this soup, because it is what a vegetable drawer becomes at the end of a week. What makes it a cream soup is not the cream but the potato: its starch gives the blender something to hold, which is why a version made only of watery vegetables always tastes thin no matter how much dairy goes in. The cream at the end is for richness and colour; the body was decided three steps earlier.

Vegetarian
Gluten-free
Not vegan because of Heavy cream, Unsalted butter
Contains dairy because of Heavy cream, Unsalted butter

Ingredients

4servings

400gPotatoes
250gCarrot
200gLeek
120gCelery stalks
150gOnion
3clovesGarlic cloves
1.2lVegetable stock
150mlHeavy cream
40gUnsalted butter
20mlExtra-virgin olive oil
1leafBay leaves
1gNutmeg
9gFine sea salt
2gGround black pepper
15gFlat-leaf parsley

Instructions

Melt the butter and sweat the sliced onion, leek and celery over low heat for 10 minutes without letting them colour.
10 min
Tip: Low and covered if your pan runs hot. Browning here would push the soup towards a roasted flavour and, more visibly, turn the finished bowl a dull beige instead of pale gold.
Add the garlic and the diced carrot and cook for another 3 minutes.
3 min
Tip: The carrot goes in after the soft vegetables because it needs no sweating — it will cook through in the stock, and long contact with the hot fat only risks scorching the sugars in it.
Add the diced potato, the stock and the bay leaf, and simmer for 20 minutes until everything is completely tender.
20 min
Tip: Cut the potato smaller than the rest. It is the last thing to soften, and undercooked potato blends to a gluey texture rather than a smooth one.
Remove the bay leaf, blend until smooth, then stir in the cream and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
4 min
Tip: Blend before the cream, not after. Fat whipped at high speed in a blender can turn grainy, and a smooth base takes cream far better than the reverse.
Serve with parsley and a thread of olive oil.
2 min
Tip: Check the thickness now: it will set noticeably as it cools, so a soup that looks right in the pot is often too thick in the bowl. A splash of hot stock fixes it.