Is chicken stock or water better for making soups? For most chefs, chicken stock in particular adds a velvety mouth feel and an intensity to soup that’s absent when you use water. Water has its adherents as well: my mother always makes her leek and potato soup with water; she prefers water for the clean fresh flavor it gives to the soup.
The downside to using water for soup making is that to avoid a, well, watery flavor, you have to use less liquid in proportion to solids: It often means ending up with a soup that’s disagreeably thick, thick enough to stand a spoon in.
My solution to the water/chicken stock debate is to use a combination of both: a 5 0/50 proportion of stock to water. This proportion is especially useful when it comes to pureed vegetable soups: If you use only chicken stock, the delicate flavor of the vegetable tends to get lost; if you make the soup entirely with water, every bite tastes the same.
I make this Leek, Potato and Celery Root Soup with equal amounts of water and stock. And as I point out to my non-meat-eating business partner at Olivea , “It’s over 50 percent vegetarian!” (I should note that she doesn’t find the joke nearly as amusing as I do).
John Broening cooks at Olivea and Duo restaurants in Denver.
Leek, Potato and Celery Root Soup
Celery root is available at most supermarkets. Makes 4 quarts.
Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 pound unsalted butter
9 leeks, white parts only, diced and rinsed
Salt
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 quart water
1 quart chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 large celery root, peeled, rinsed and diced
3 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup crème fraîche
Pepper
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg
Hot sauce to taste
Directions
In a Dutch oven or non-reactive soup pot, bring 1 cup water to a boil over medium heat. Add the butter and bring the liquid back to a boil. Add the leeks and a pinch of salt, stir well and cover. Turn the heat to low, and cook until the leeks are tender, about 20 minutes.
In a separate small saucepan, bring the wine to a simmer and reduce by 3/4.
Add the additional water, broth, bay leaf, celery root and potatoes to the pot with the leeks. Cook until the celery root and potatoes are completely tender, about 1 hour. Add reduced wine during last 10 minutes of cooking.
Remove the bay leaf and puree the soup in batches, adding the crème fraîche and seasonings. (Be careful not to fill the blender too full or you’ll be scraping this soup off your ceiling.)
Serve with a garnish of toasted country bread or truffle oil.
