Badische Kartoffelsuppe

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4 litre soup pot
• •Immersion blender
• •Ladle
• •Sharp knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Sweat the roots

   Melt the butter in a heavy pot over medium-low heat, then add the onion, leek, carrots, and celeriac with a pinch of salt. Cook them gently for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring, until the leek softens but does not brown. Browning makes the soup taste roasted; Baden wants it pale, sweet, and clean.

2. 2

   Add potatoes

   Stir in the potatoes, bay leaf, marjoram, and stock. Bring it just to a simmer, then lower the heat and cook uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes break when pressed against the side of the pot. Floury potatoes are the right potato here because their starch thickens the soup without flour.

3. 3

   Remove the bay

   Lift out the bay leaf and the lovage stem if you used a whole sprig. Do this before blending because one tough bay leaf can turn a smooth soup bitter and gritty. Weggeworfen wird nichts, but the bay has done its work.

4. 4

   Purée the soup

   Purée the soup with an immersion blender until smooth, or leave one ladle of vegetables aside and stir it back in if you want a little bite. Blend only once the potatoes are fully soft; half-cooked potato gives you a sandy texture no amount of cream can repair.

   For a silkier Baden bowl, pass the soup through a coarse sieve after blending. For a weeknight bowl, the immersion blender is enough. This is supper, not a ceremony.
5. 5

   Finish gently

   Lower the heat and stir in the cream, vinegar, nutmeg, and black pepper. Taste before you salt hard because the sausage will add its own salt. Do not boil the cream; a hard boil dulls the herbs and makes the finish heavy instead of smooth.

6. 6

   Warm sausage

   Add the sliced Wienerle and let them warm in the finished soup for 5 minutes over low heat. They should plump and heat through, not split and leak into the pot. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: taste again, then correct with salt and one more drop of vinegar if the potatoes taste too round.

7. 7

   Add herbs

   Stir in most of the parsley and chopped lovage right before serving, saving a little for the bowls. Fresh herbs go in last because heat drives off their green scent. Ladle into warm bowls, scatter the rest over the top, and serve with rye bread or a plain roll.

Chef Tips

• •Use floury potatoes, not waxy salad potatoes. Floury potatoes fall apart and thicken the soup; waxy ones stay firm and make the blender work too hard.
• •Lovage tastes like celery leaf with more backbone. Use a little. Too much and the whole pot tastes like a herb bed after rain.
• •If you have a ham bone, pork rind, or chicken carcass, make the stock from it. Strain it clean before it goes into the soup. The old kitchens knew where the flavour was.
• •Add vinegar with a teaspoon, not a bottle. Baden's soup wants lift, not sourness. The vinegar wakes the potato up.
• •Wienerle are optional, but if you use them, warm them gently. Boiled sausage skins split, and then you've made the pot greasy for no good reason.

Advance Preparation

• •The soup base can be cooked and blended one day ahead, then chilled without cream, sausage, or fresh herbs. Add those when reheating so the soup tastes fresh instead of tired.
• •Reheat over low heat and stir often because potato soup catches on the bottom. If it thickens overnight, loosen it with stock or water before adding the cream.
• •Leftovers keep 2 days in the refrigerator. Warm gently, and add a little fresh parsley at the table because yesterday's herbs have already given what they had.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 550g)