I made this soup tonight for a holiday party in 2 weeks and hope it is as good after being frozen as it is now. It turned a butter yellow color, and tastes buttery and creamy, yet has no butter or cream in it. It would be vegan if it wasn't for the homemade turkey bone broth. I could have used vegetable broth, but it may be this particular turkey broth is what made this soup so good. Or it could be the locally grown Norwis Potatoes from the Carrot Barn in Schoharie, or our own-grown Leeks and German White Garlic. Other than that, the only other ingredients were a little bit of olive oil and dash of sea salt and pepper. These directions are exactly what I used, but no reason these particular varieties need to be used-I am sure it would be good with vegetable broth, and different kinds of potatoes and garlic.
This is a double recipe, so cut in half if you don't want feed 2 for dinner and 10 cups more.
Preheat oven to 400 or 425 degrees.
To large roasting pan add:
- 5 lbs norwis potatoes, peeled and cubed small (about 3/4 inch) (not all of the potatoes fit in my pan)
- 5 cups leeks, sliced and diced
- 2 german white garlic heads. I removed the paper because of dirt, but it would be easier to leave cloves connected and slice off top so cloves stay together. These garlic each had 4 giant cloves-6 cloves went into the roasting pan.
- olive oil
- sea salt
Pour some olive oil on the vegetables and mix with hands till all coated. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. (I didn't measure- 2-4 TBSP of olive oil?)
Put in oven, stir occasionally, roast until done (everything is soft and smells good- 30-40 minutes?)
While the veggies are in the oven, Heat in Large Soup Pot:
- 12 cups reconstituted homemade Turkey Broth- about 12 large ice cube sized frozen cubes, plus water.
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 2 Garlic Cloves, minced (or minced tops cut from garlic heads).
- When hot, add any potatoes that wouldn't fit in the roasting pan. In my case, that was about 1.5 - 2 pounds.
Simmer until potatoes are soft. Remove the bay leaves.
The roasted vegetables should be done about the same time.
- Remove the roasted garlic first.
- Add the roasted vegetables to the soup pot.
- Squish some of the roasted garlic into the soup. I reserved 2 of garlic roasted garlic cloves because I didn't want it to be too garlicky.
- Deglaze the roasting pan by adding a cup of water and heating it on the stove just enough so the browned bits detach from the roasting pan and color the water. Add this liquid to the soup pot.
- Stir and simmer until the flavors start coming together.
- Add a little fresh finely ground black pepper (I would probably use white pepper next time) and more sea salt if needed.
- Blend with an immersion blender. Stop whenever it is consistency you want. I kept blending until really smooth.
I was going to add sour cream or milk to it (later to the portions being frozen), but it was so creamy and delicious as is, it didn't need anything more.
Serve with choice of toppings typical for baked potatoes - fresh chives, shredded cheddar cheese, bacon bits, and sour cream.
Note: The turkey bone broth was made from the carcass of our 20 pound fresh Thanksgiving Turkey we ordered from Honest Weight from a farm in PA that was certified as humanely raised. What a difference than the mass-market frozen turkeys. Slowly simmered for about three hours with some carrots, celery, and onion, it made fantastic broth with no fat or scum at all. I think it was $2.50/lb. Worth the $50 to feed the family on Thanksgiving and send everyone home with lots of leftover turkey.
