Potato, rutabega, leek and cheese soup. SO much better than it sounds.

I am reminded that winter will be gone next week.  I love winter.  OK, not so much a San Antonio winter, because it only lasts about 10 minutes here.
   I love winter where it snows, where soup is the meal of choice, fires in the fireplace and a glass of red wine in hand.  Cuddled up on the couch with a cozy blanket and my husband is good with me. 
  Truthfully though, January and most of February here is nice and chilly for the most part. Heck it even froze a night or two.  We had fires, wine and soup.
 This last weekend I thought I would get one more winter soup day in.  I am glad I did because this soup was a winner.  Oh my, the taste was mild yet rich in flavor.  Perfect.

  I had a hodgepodge of root veggies in my pantry.  Feel free to use whatever you have in the potato department.  Remember, recipes are a template, add and take away things that YOU enjoy or have on hand.

Here is what I did.

3ish Tbsp ghee (because I really like ghee, use butter or olive oil if you want)
1 clove garlic
3 leeks sliced fine into light green
2 rutabagas
1 Yukon gold potato
1 russet potato
1 stalk of celery chopped fine
about a cup of aged white cheddar, I used 'Cougar gold'*
white pepper and salt to taste ( I like white because you can't see it)
enough chicken or veggie broth to cover veg mix

paprika to garnish, along with either parsley or baby spouts.  I used sprouts because I thought it looked pretty.  My son had no sprouts. :-)

 *Cougar Gold is a cheese that my parents give me every year around Christmas time.  It is made at Washington State University.  Oh my gosh it is such good cheese. Served best room temperature with crackers and such.   I love cooking with it.  This sharp white cheese melts wonderfully and pairs very well with eggs, and come to find out with this soup.

I like to slice my potatoes thin.  That way when it comes time to use the immersion blender it goes quickly.  If you have a mandolin slicer it will make this soup even more easy.  I need to get myself one of those.

  So slice the potatoes and rutabagas, mince the garlic, slice the leeks, cut the celery.

I then add the ghee into a hot soup pot, melt it then add garlic, leeks  and celery.  cook until softened.  add potatoes and rutabagas stir everything together and add enough broth to cover.  3  cups ish.

I let it simmer about an hour, then I went in with a hand held potato masher for a few mashes, then brought out my immersion blender.  Love this!  If you don't have one, get one.

After everything was blended, I tasted, added S&P to my liking, then I added my cheese.  I am guessing that it was about a cup. I really just broke off chunks from my block and threw it in.  You might want to grate and measure. lol I'm not good at that yet.

  stir the soup until nice and creamy and all the cheese is melted, tasted again, you should be smiling.

dish up and enjoy.  I want winter to stick around a bit more so I can make this soup over and over again.

Happy eating.