Scottish Fare: Cock a Leekie Soup

For Saint Patrick's Day each year, we enjoy our favorite must-have Irish recipes:

* Irish apple-cake with Irish breakfast tea
* Irish cheese with homemade soda-bread rolls and apple wedges
* beautiful bowls of colcannon
* shepherd's pie or a lovely pot of 'tattie stew...

Every year looks pretty similar, and since these are all family favorites we don't mind at all. But this year I wanted to change up just one meal - and with our carb-heavy potato obsession during the month of March, I thought I'd try for a soup.

Cock a Leekie Soup... another Scottish dish with a funny name. This one actually makes sense when you think about it - it's chicken and leeks. Yep, it really is that simple.

After comparing over a dozen recipes, it became quite obvious that I'd had this soup. Thousands of times, in dozens of variations. It's soup, so there are as many recipes as there are cooks in the kitchen but here are the basics:
Chicken - I used a 12oz package of Quorn for a vegan version.
Chicken stock - since our chicken was vegan, I used enough vegan bouillon for 6 cups of water.
Leeks - come in packages of 3, so that's what I used.
Carrots - 2 medium-large carrots.
Potato - the recipes call for EITHER potato OR barley... with our gluten allergy, potato it was! I used 2 medium.
Other random ingredients - seriously, it's soup... I think I saw everything imaginable including FRESH PLUMS as optional extras! I kept things simple this time and opted for nothing but the basics.

Everything went onto the back burner, to simmer for 2 hours. And what we ended up with was... MY basic soup recipe! When the fridge is running empty, or the sky is gloomy, or someone has the sniffles... this is the soup that I make! Sure, sometimes leeks are hard to find so I'll substitute onion. Sometimes I'll add celery and thyme. Sometimes I'll add paprika, and sometimes we're out of Quorn, so I'll add an extra potato to the pot instead. But this is MY soup!!!

I have heard the theories of ancestral memories before. But I had no idea that the soup I make when I'm in the kitchen without a recipe and without a solid plan for a meal... is an old Scottish standby! And the truly ironic thing is that I suffer from GERD - but while onions make my tummy rebel, leeks have never bothered me. So in its proper form, this soup becomes happy-tummy food!

Heh... my tummy knew I was Scottish, before my head! This isn't a matter of planning to add a new recipe to our book, this is a recipe I've unknowingly carried in my head all along!