Share the Love Crock Pot Campaign- chapter one Leek and Potato Soup

Serves 6 (ish)
ingredients: olive oil, 4 medium leeks, I large onion, 3 -4 cloves garlic, 4-5 medium to large potatoes, 5-6 cups chicken broth (can substitute water or vegetable broth if needed), salt, white pepper, chives, 2 T butter, whole milk or heavy cream

Wash, peel and chop potatoes and to slow cooker and cover with broth. Cover and put on low 5-7hours
As soon as they are in, wash, chop, rinse and saute leeks in a little olive oil along with chopped onion and garlic. Add to potatoes and leave it all alone til much later!

When potatoes are tender, puree with hand blender (or transfer to food processor/blender). Return to crock, add salt, pepper, butter and a splash of heavy cream (til it looks creamy and tastes amazing).

Serve chopped chives on top and french bread on the side!

My Notes: to my mind taking a little time to saute is worth extra time, however you could skip this process and entirely and add it all at the same time - this is what the recipe I base this on does, but since I've never met a recipe that I haven't tweaked, I decided to see what would happen if I went for extra flavor, hence the onion and garlic as well. Last time I cooked this I deglazed my saute pan with some white wine, that was awesome. Also, I chopped up and sauteed and extra leek and left some of the greens on - these I tossed into the pureed soup giving it a rustic look.

Notes from "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker: -
one hour before ending time add - a bunch of watercress and 12oz frozen peas, or 2 cups spinach (and 1 cup heavy cream after puree stage)

Enjoy!

Peas in a Creamy Sauce

I recently typed this recipe up for a friend so I thought I would share it with you guys too. It comes from one of Madhur Jaffrey's Indian cook books. It such a rich and delicious way to eat peas.

Peas in a Creamy Sauce serves 4-6, total prep time about 15 minutes, cooking time about 3minutes.

Ingredients
1/4t sugar
1/4t ground cumin
1/2t garam masala
3/4t salt
1T tomato paste
2T water
3/4 heavy whipping cream
1T lemon juice
1/4-1/2t cayenne pepper
2T chopped cilantro
1T fresh hot chilis (finely chopped)
1/2t cumin seeds (not ground)
1/2t mustand seeds (not ground)
10-20oz. frozen peas (defrosted and drained)

Directions:

Sauce:
Combine sugar, ground cumin, salt, caynenne, garam masala and tomato paste in a small bowl. SLoly add 2 T of water, mixing as you go. Add cream, mix Add lemon juice, cilantro and chili, mix and then set aside.

Peas:
In large skillet heat 3 T oil. When hot add 1/2t cumin seeds and 1/2t mustard seeds...toast (cook stirring until fragrant)...when seeds begin to "pop" add the peas and stir fry for 30 seconds. ADd sauce, cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Serve warm with rice or with other favorite Indian dishes.

Notes:
I do not usually add the chilis because I don't care for them
I often leave out the cilantro because I don't always have it
The recipe does not seem to suffer greatly without those two ingredients.
Also, the whole seeds could probably be left out without it being a huge deal, but they do add nice additional flavors and a little texture too.

Enjoy!