Leek potato soup

So, in the Paleo community some people don't eat potatoes. Sorry folks, I do. The paleo community eats a lot of things that aren't the most amazing/good for you/best possible foods for my brood and that I won't feed my child so let's call this even.

Besides, mustard has been taken from my available list of foods because the vinegar used to make it is almost always corn derived...that really sucks for me since my kid is one of the Celiac people with a corn sensitivity. 

Most paleo people don't hyper focus on labels since for the most part all the ingredients seem okay. I recently bought a package of breakfast sausage from my new favorite farmer. We had a long discussion about animal care and feeding, slaughtering and food preparation. He and his lovely wife assured me that no corn products were in any of their foods. I bought the most amazing brats and bacon ever along with the sausage. (The bacon is nitrate free and seasoned with celery and cherry juice which makes the best flavor with less saltiness.)  Thanks to my mother's keen eye, I avoided a disaster when she noticed dextrose on the label. Most paleo people wouldn't care about that but dextrose to me means corn poison. So, she had a lovely breakfast sausage and I made bacon. mmmmm bacon. Interested in the zillion ways corn is hiding in your food? Check out this list. 

This is the little (big) man who is such the awesome eater.

Now to the soup. Really tasty soup. If it weren't for the bacon, it would be vegan. But I reserve the right to add bacon to anything I can. I have lost all the baby weight without really trying and have to keep my body going for my little man so I eat as much bacon as I can shove in my face. Life is too short to be deprived. While you can use ghee as a butter substitute for this recipe, I kept it simple and used bacon grease. Additionally, some people use dairy but since I don't, I used coconut milk for this flavor. So rich and delicious. Serves 6. If you like roasted garlic, roast the garlic while you are making the soup so you can have it ready by the time you reach the final steps. 

Ingredients: 

Rinse the dirt out.

• 4-5 Leeks with the green parts chopped off and the rest rinsed well
• 4-5 small potatoes
• 1 tbl white pepper
• 4 pieces of bacon
• salt
• 4 cloves of roasted garlic or minced garlic
• optional- scallions
• can of coconut milk
• Box of chicken or veggie stock

Put a large pot on medium heat and sizzle up your bacon until crispy. Take the bacon out and leave the grease in. Set the bacon to the side and try not to eat it all like I do. 

Cut into little coins and keep the bottoms to plant.

Literally plant the bottoms and enjoy new, free leeks! 

Cut up your leeks. Chop off the bottom 1" of the leek, save for later. Take the leafy tops off as well. Discard those. With the remaining section, chop into 1/2" sections. 

Rinse well and push apart into rings so they cook quicker.

Peel and chop the potatoes and set aside. Put the rinsed leeks into the bacon grease and cook down for 5 minutes. Add a dash of sea salt to help sweat the leeks. Once they are nice and cooked down, add the potato and broth. Add the roasted garlic or fresh garlic and white pepper. Bring to a hard boil. Boil for 5 minutes then turn down the heat, set the lid on and cook on low for 25 minutes. Check and cook for up to 15 minutes more, as needed to attain tater softness. 

Once cooked, blend with an immersion blender or your blender of choice. 

Add the can of coconut milk and continue to mix. Pour into a bowl and add the crumbled bacon and scallions. Enjoy!