Mexican Style Leek and Potato Soup

Preparation

1. In a saucepan, bring the stock and the water to a boil over a high flme. Add the leek tops. Cover and turn the flame down to low. Simmer while you put the soup base together.
2. In a blender liquidize the tomatoes and garlic. Set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over a medium flame until it shimmers. Add the leeks. Sprinkle with salt and cook until they become soft and transparent, but not browned.
4. Add the potatoes and stir to mix and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the liquidized tomatoes and garlic, using ½ cup of the stock to rinse out any remaining in the vase into the pan. Cook until the tomatoes take on an orangey hue. Remove the leek tops from the stock and discard. Add stock to the vegetables. Cook at a low simmer until the potatoes are just tender, about 10-15 minutes. Taste for salt.
5. Meanwhile roughly chop the pepitas together with a pinch of salt. Add the oregano and chop together with the pepitas until the oregano is coarsely chopped. Set aside.
6. Serve the soup in bowls sprinkled with the chopped oregano pepitas mixture.

Ann's Tips and Tricks

If you have some of our vegan vegetable peel stock ready made in your freezer, it is perfect for this soup. Use a full 8-10 cups of that as it won’t need diluting. This soup is vegan as written, but you can make with Chicken stock if preferred, or add a Parmesan rind along with the leek tops for extra flavor.

I find it easiest to wash the leek whites after slicing them.

When tomatoes are in season at the end of summer, use very ripe beefsteak or Roma tomatoes. At other times use plain canned tomatoes, diced or whole.