Pear and Leek Soup

 

Old-Fashioned Pear & Leek Soup

A farmhouse-style soup — simple ingredients, long slow heat, and a proper depth of flavour.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 30g butter

• 3 leeks, trimmed, washed, and sliced into rounds

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 3 ripe pears, peeled, cored, and roughly chopped

• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

• 1¼ litres good chicken or vegetable stock

• 1 bay leaf

• ½ tsp dried thyme

• Salt and white pepper, to taste

• 4 tbsp single cream, to serve

• Small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped, to garnish

Method

1. Cook the leeks and onion slowly

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over a low flame. Add the onion and leeks and cook very gently — don't rush this — until completely soft and sweet, about 15 minutes. This is the foundation of the soup.

2. Add pears and potato

Add the pears and potatoes to the pot and stir to coat. Let them cook together with the leeks for 5 minutes.

3. Add stock and simmer

Pour over the stock, add the bay leaf and dried thyme, and season well with salt and white pepper. Bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer with the lid half on until the potato is quite soft and beginning to break down — about 25 minutes.

4. Finish the soup

Remove the bay leaf. For a smooth soup, pass through a mouli or sieve, or mash roughly with a potato masher for a more textured, old-fashioned result. Taste and correct the seasoning.

5. Serve

Ladle into warmed bowls. Stir a spoonful of cream into each, and scatter over the chopped parsley. Serve with thick slices of bread and butter.

Notes

The old way: Before stick blenders, soups like this were pushed through a mouli (food mill) or a sieve — worth doing if you want an authentically smooth result without a modern texture.

Stock matters: A proper homemade stock makes a real difference here. If using a cube, go easy on added salt until the end.

Pears: Slightly overripe pears are actually better here — they melt beautifully into the soup.

Cream: Your Mum's version may well have used top-of-the-milk rather than cream — entirely in keeping with the era.

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