Spicy leek and potato soup

Method
Prep:20min  ›  Cook:20min  ›  Ready in:40min 

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and gently cook in the pan until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. Keep the lid on during cooking and remove only to stir from time to time. Meanwhile, put the kettle on.
2. Add leeks to the pan, gently melting them into the onion for another 5 minutes or so.
3. Whilst cooking, add a good pinch of salt and some black pepper. Continue to stir so that the ingredients don't catch and burn - keep the heat low at this stage.
4. Add the potatoes, chilli and tomato puree. Give it all a good stir, keeping the heat low.
5. Dissolve vegetable stock cubes in 400ml of boiling water (now you know why you put the kettle on) and add to the pan. Add more boiling water to cover the ingredients and no more. You can always top up the water to keep the ingredients covered but if you keep the heat low this shouldn't be necessary.
6. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time to prevent burning. Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly.
7. Once cool, using a hand blender, gently pulp about a third of the soup. I like to have some vegetable lumps in my bowl of soup so don't blend it into oblivion.
8. Bring it back up to serving temperature, spoon it into your bowls and add some crusty bread to the side.

Tip

You can garnish the soup once in the bowl with almost anything you like but you won't have the time as you'll be very keen to get stuck in!