Leek soup with dill oil

Today's we made this delicious leek and potato soup with dill oil, inspired by Heidi Swanson's recipe.
(Here is the recipe!)

It is so tasty and super easy to make. It was devoured by all here.

It just called for 7 ingredients and but we left out the butter... It doesn't really need it. I also just dumped all the ingredients in a pot and used a handheld blender to puree at the end, keeping it a bit chunky as she suggested. ( I was pressed for time).

If you haven't visited her blog.... please do so! ( Here)
Besides the fact that her vegetarian recipes are amazing... her photos are gorgeous!

(all in the pot...)

(The dill oil)

mmmmm!

(Everything tastes better if it is in the shape of a heart. So the dill oil was sampled by my little picky eater here and deemed delicious! ;)

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Green day...

I would have to say that one of my favorite, super fast soups to make is a "green" soup.  Totally vegetarian and I kid you not when I say it takes about a half an hour to make ... probably including prepping time.   This one has potatoes in it, onions, spinach and parsley.  That's it! ... well, salt and pepper too.

Most people associate a good potato soup with some form of cream in it, (and probably bacon too).  But potatoes are so starchy, that they don't really need anything to cream them up, the starch does the job.  

I begin by browning some onions (2 medium) in some olive oil (a tablespoon or so) and as that is cooking at medium heat, I chop some potatoes (red or white about 8-10 medium without skins) and toss those in.  If you have some veggie broth toss that in (enough to cover the potatoes and have about an inch extra of water on top)... but if you don't, toss in some water (cover the potatoes leaving an inch above them of water).  I like to add a vegan veggie bouillion cube if I don't have veggie broth.   I like the brand "rapunzel".   I then add salt and pepper to taste and bring that to a boil.  I test the potatoes for softness.  If the potatoes are done, I lower the heat and  toss in about 10 oz of baby spinach, and a handful of parsley leaves.  (I am generous with the parsley since i love the taste...but that is up to you.)

I then use my hand held blender to puree the whole soup and turn off the heat.  

The trick I love is to wait till the soup (mainly the potatoes) is done, to then add the greens and puree.  It helps to keep them bright green and retains most of their vitamins.

And you know what?  kids love it.  Its been well tested here by many.

I also snuck in some pickling... 

(though daddy did most of the work :)

These are from the same pickling book i used before,  (the joy of pickling by Linda Ziedrich)  and are called "honey sunshine".  

They contain cucumbers, onions, raisins, jalapeños, celery seeds, mustard seeds, honey, ginger and turmeric.

Today ended with some running around in the green grass of the day.

The breeze reminded us that fall is around the corner 

and summer is saying goodbye for now.

Looking forward to the colors of fall.