Julienne Darblay (Creamed Leek and Potato Soup with Julienned Vegetables)

Welcome to another Whisk Wednesday and to our latest challenge! This week's assignment was Julienne Darblay (but shouldn't that be D'Arblay?) from Le Cordon Bleu at Home. According to The Wordsworth Dictionary of Culinary and Menu Terms, the word darblay comes from the French and is "a potato soup with finely chopped vegetables," which seems to make julienne a bit redundant, too. But never mind.

This is not a terribly complicated recipe, in that the ingredients are very basic and familiar, but it's not a recipe you can make at the last minute, either. Like so many classic French dishes, it assumes your kitchen has homemade stock on hand and it requires a fair amount of prep work (the word julienne in the title probably gave that away, no?). So when I read over the recipe on Sunday and noted that the very first item on the ingredients list was chicken stock and a reference to another recipe for preparing it, I was quite perturbed with myself for not having bought a chicken at our local Farmer's Market the day before. Another trip to the Greenmarket and a day of simmering later, and I was ready to roll.

Once the leeks, potatoes and bouquet garni were cooking in the chicken broth, the kitchen started to smell seriously fabulous.

I actually enjoy chopping vegetables, so I didn't mind creating these piles of julienned leeks, carrots and turnips, which were then blanched in salted water very briefly.

The cooked potatoes and leeks were pureed and then strained to remove every tiny bit of leek and potato pieces for a smooth velvety base. The base was reheated gently, combined with creme fraiche, and then poured over the julienned vegetables.

In taste it is very similar to vichyssoise, which is hardly surprising, given that the only real difference here is the addition of the julienned vegetables and that the soup is served warm.

Comments

[Natashya]

Your julienne is perfect. I have to work on that myself. Your photos are lovely and the soup looks tasty.

[melissa]

I saw both your and Natashya's posts on this. Looks like a soup I would love for my weekday lunches.

[michelle]

Good grief woman! Look at those beautiful julienned veggies! I wish I could do that!! Hmmm...I'll have to add that to my "to learn" list. ;) The soup sounds wonderful too!

[Jessica]

Your soup has just the texture the recipe called for - well done!

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

And I was just thinking as I read this post that it would be good cold, too -- maybe because it was 95 degrees at my house this afternoon....

[Julie]

But so much prettier than vichyssoise! Plus darblay just sounds like a fun word to say.

[Lori Lynn @ Taste With The Eyes]

Vegetable harmony. Bravo.

[Manggy]

Sans the pureeing of the potatoes, this sounds very similar to some rainy-weather soups we would make here-- lovely and comforting (it's been stormy here the past few days). Also, I though Julienne Darblay would be someone's name again, haha! :)

[grace]

what a fancy-shmancy name for tater soup with chopped veggies. :) i'm sure it went down real nice--good work.

[núria]

What a great soup Ann! It's just too hot for soups here now but I do love all ingredients and I'm keeping this recipe for the winter cold days... or have you tried it cold?

[núria]

What a great soup Ann! Could you also have it cold? It's just too hot here now, but I love all ingredients!

[núria]

Sorry, Internet is giving me errors and that's why I resend it... I thought that the 1st one didn't go through... ups!

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

I am overwhelmed at your julienned veggies!! I'll have to be content with my mandoline julienne. My grandmother always made us vichyssoise in the summer and it was delightful. I would love it with these julienned veggies and how simple to just pour the vichyssoise over them!

[Sophie]

I love how this is a soup and yet it still has such summery colors. It looks so fresh and delicious!

[Bonbon Oiseau]

this looks great!

[adele]

Impressive knifework, and a lovely-looking soup. :)

[dhanggit]

your julienne strips are so perfect ann!! and your photos are soo mouth-watering!! i love them!

[Zlamushka]

lovely creamy soup.
I came here through What´s For Lunch, Honey? I am hosting an event dedicated to trying foods from other bloggers. Meeta is in the spotlight for July. I really hope you can participate :-)

[Bellini Valli]

I love potato soup of all kinds...hot or cold:D

[Shari]

Wow, your julienned vegetables look perfect! I agree that again it wasn't a hard recipe but required more pots than I usually use to make a soup!

[Glennis - Can't Believe We Ate]

You've got a lovely bit of knife-work there, and a beautiful soup to go with it! We've had unforgiving hot days as well, and this is a soup that works on a hot night. Served on the warm side of hot (steaming, but not scalding), this soup has a comforting lightness to it that was almost refreshing. Onward to creamy chicken next!

[Kayte]

Delicious...the food looks delicious, your knife skills are amazingly delicious, the photos are delicious...I think you got this one down just right!

[Aran]

This is so dear to my heart... I grew up eating leek and potato soup... at least once a week. I don't care if it's 100 degrees outside. I love soup!

[michelle @ TNS]

okay, that's a super fun word. darblay. darblay. darblay.

confetti soup!

[Haley]

We'd like to invite you to participate in our July berry recipe contest. All competitors will be placed on our blogroll, and the winner will receive a fun prize! Please email me, haleyglasco@gmail.com, if you're interested. Feel free to check out our blog for more details. (Click on my name in the message header link to visit our blog. :)