I made potato leek soup yesterday. Its easy, its cheap, its delicious and I love it!

I bought the leeks at Wholesome Foods, renamed from Healthy Pleasures. [Here you can read a discussion on chowhound and vegsource blasting Healthy Pleasures and its organic produce and meat fraud.] Well, controversy or not, the store was the only affordable place around my apartment that carried leeks-- at the bargain price of $1.49/lb (supposedly organic leeks). When I went across the street to D'Agostino's, their tired-looking leeks were double the price-- $2.99/lb!

Unbelievable.

I followed a recipe from the book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The author was the chef/founder of the Greens restaurant in California, a highly esteemed vegetarian restaurant.

First, I chopped off the green part of the leek and stuffed it in the fridge (to save later for making vegetable stock and because I can't bear to throw anything away). Then, I finely sliced up the white part of the leeks. Again I contemplated whether or not I needed a food processor.

The leeks spilled over the edges of the cutting board, splashing over my grey-speckled countertop. Too much leek for too little cutting board I guess. Then I dunked the leeks in some water to get all the dirt and grime off.

While that was happening, I peeled 6 Idaho potatoes (straight into my shiny, new expensive trash can). I cut the potatoes into quarters and sliced them thinly.

Then I heated up my soup pot and dropped in butter (from E. Village Cheese, great store). Immediately, the butter started to sizzle and my apartment filled with smoke. The smell of burned butter floated through the apartment just as Homer's high school friend, Kelly, came in the front door.

"Whoa, your apartment is full of smoke! Do you need help?" she asked.

I sheepishly said, "No, no everything is fine!" as I frantically dumped the butter into another pot. "Just sit down and relax!"

I then pulled the chopped leeks out of their water bath and put them into the pot along with the sliced potatoes. This I let sit for about 10 minutes on low heat with a cover.

At this point, I used some magic baking soda to scrub off the burn marks from the pot (I had to reuse it immediately, since I only have one pot big enough for soup.)

After 10 minutes, I put the mixture from the pot on the stove into my now gleaming steel pot and poured in enough water to reach the rim. I added some salt, let the soup come to a boil, then I simmered it for about 30 minutes.

That's pretty much it. After half an hour, I squished the potatoes up with a fork, added more salt and some pepper, and inhaled the soup. Delicious.