Blue Cheese Potato Soup

A simple and very delicious warming soup for those cold winter months. Or chill it and serve it as cooling soup for the warm summer months. A very versatile soup!

Ingredients
1. 250 gms Stilton or other good quality blue cheese (eg. St Agur, Rochefort, etc)
2. 1 small leek
3. 1 pot of cream (double is best but single is also fine)

From your pantry

• Salt
• Pepper
• 400-500 gms potatoes
• Garlic (small bulb) (optional)
  
• Onion (optional)
• Olive oil (optional)
  

The secret to this dish is simplicity. Keep to the stated steps and you will always create a great soup!

Instructions

If you are using the garlic and onion, then chop the garlic very finely and slice the onion. In the saucepan, splash a little olive oil and fry the onion and garlic over a medium flame until the onion is translucent. Leave everything in the saucepan and continue as follows.

1. Peel the potatoes
2. Over the saucepan, grate the potatoes finely into the pan
3. Finely chop about 6-7 cms of the leek, preferably the green part, and mix in with potatoes
4. Pour water slowly into the saucepan while mixing the ingredients, until the water covers the potatoes
5. Place saucepan over medium heat, and cover
6. Stir every few mins and while stirring add in salt and pepper to suit taste. If the soup thickens too much, add some more water
7. After 10-12 mins (when the potatoes are cooked), break the Stilton cheese into chunks and mix into saucepan. The cheese will start to dissolve almost immediately
8. Keep stirring the soup until the cheese is all melted. If necessary, add in a little more water if the cheese is sticking too much to the pan or the soup is too thick for you
9. Pour in as much (or as little cream) as you like and keep stirring until soup is just rising again to the boil. Turn off the heat at once
10. Adjust flavours one last time with salt and pepper (and cream), and that's it!

The soup is actually best if you can blend it down with an electric stick blender, but it is not crucial. If you can, garnish the soup with chopped chives or chopped spring onions before serving. Serve with toasted bread, or if you make it extra thick, then you can also use it as sauce on pasta. Just add chopped fried bacon on top to make an unusual and delicious pasta dish!