I made this recipe because I had a vast quantity of… you guessed it… leek greens, chard, and pumpkin. If you don’t have leek greens, you can use the leek stalk. I make it this way just because most recipes specify “only use the white part of the leek”, and I hate wasting all the perfectly good green leafy bits.
All proportions and ingredients are variable: adjust to preferences and what you have handy in your kitchen.
Ingredients
½ blue grocery bag of leek greens: chopped
Beef or chicken broth to cover (about 5 cups)
2 lbs mild Italian chicken sausage (can substitute any vegetarian sausage such as Trader Joes or Morningstar Farms Brands).
2 cups pumpkin puree (can be substituted with 2 cups cooked potatoes)
6 to 10 medium redskin potatoes (can substitute with about 1 1/3 cups of instant potato flakes and 1 1/3 cup water).
A bunch of celery stalk, leafy part included (optional)
Swiss chard stalks (optional)
5 cloves garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste (I use lots of pepper, just a little sea salt)
Instructions
Chop all vegetables, put in large soup pot, cover with broth.
Bring to boil, then drop to simmer for about an hour, till leeks look thoroughly cooked.
Remove all vegetables from pot, transfer to a bowl.
Puree in a food processor.
Return to pot, continue to simmer.
Meanwhile in a separate pan, cook the sausage, chopping into bite size pieces and crumbles.
Add sausage to soup.
Chop and lightly sautee garlic in the pan the sausage was cooked in (use the sausage drippings or a little olive oil).
Add garlic, salt, and pepper to soup.
Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.
Serve with homemade bread.