A humble wintery cream of leek and potato soup can be brightened up with springy lemony & herby flavors and dressed up with windowpane (or sandwiched semi-transparent layers of) oven-baked crispy leek & potato chips, filled with more fresh herbs too. All of this is because here in France, we thought that spring had already placed a solid foot in the door, but winter stepped right back in and is still blocking the doorway to spring ! We’ll wait patiently because patience, they say, is a virtue, but I don’t know if that would be very European of us, after all … !

This humble soup is vegetarian. The only deeper meat-like flavor is due to the addition of just a little bit of “marmite” in the home-made broth, which is a very British, dark brown and salty vegetarian yeast spread, and I guess we could say that it’s like a thick fermented European version of a soy miso paste or soy sauce. I often use it to flavor most vegetarian broths and sauces.

The broth is home-made and extremely flavorful and is probably the most important preparation. A good broth will always make a good soup and the objective is to prepare a tasty simmering liquid that will be strained and then incorporated to deliver all the extra flavors needed without adding them again to the cooked leeks and potatoes.

Try to use as much as possible of the light green parts of the leek and yellow and not white potatoes to get that light greenish-yellow color of the soup but adding more fresh green herbs before puréeing the mixture will also contribute to the pale green color.

The dill and lemon are my additions, like a magical spell that I cast to bring spring back to France. My fingers remain crossed.

And the baked chips are a decorative addition to make this humble and simple potato and leek soup more festive … :)