Warm Your Soul with Sweet Potato Leek Soup

A classic Potage Parmentier is made with five simple ingredients: potatoes, leeks, water, salt and cream. When executed properly it can be a delicious warming soup in a stick to your ribs kind of way, but four out of the five ingredients have little to no flavor. So really this is a leek soup thats been thickened with potatoes and enriched with cream.

I've updated the recipe with sweet potatoes, which are not only have more flavorful than regular potatoes, they are a better source of vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber and calcium. Celery brings some vegetal notes and more fiber, and soy milk stands in for the cream, making the soup creamy, without being cloying.

Personally I prefer this to the classic, because sweet potatoes are sweeter and have more flavor than ordinary spuds. The fact that it's vegan, low in fat, and cholesterol-free is merely a serendipitous consequence.

It's also absurdly simple to make. Perhaps the most tedious part of the whole thing is to clean the leeks, which are notorious for trapping dirt and sand between the leaves.

To save time, and to ensure you get rid of all the grit, I like to slice the leeks up and use a salad spinner to wash them. If you fill it up with water and move the leeks around, you can literally see the sand falling to the bottom. The best part of this approach is that you can then use the spinner to dry the leeks before sautéing them.