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My hearty vegan potato, leek, and cheese soup is not only really creamy and delicious – and ready in just 30 minutes – it’s also only 197 calories per bowl! What a great way to kick-start your healthy new year!

Is there anything better to warm you up on a rainy winter’s day than a delicious bowl of thick, hearty potato, leek, and cheese soup for lunch? I think not! This potato, leek, and cheese soup is just the thing for our chilly weather, and will, as they say, warm the cockles of your heart.

Why cockles? Because ‘ventricles of the heart’ just doesn’t have the same ring about it! (‘Cockles’ comes from cochleae cordis – the snail-shaped chambers we have in our hearts.)

Before we left Britain in early 2012, something amato mio and I loved to do in the winter was drive to Salcey Forest, and go for long walks. I’d make a flask of soup beforehand (usually broccoli and ‘cheese’, or onion, or pumpkin), and we’d call in to Waitrose on the way to buy a couple of granary bread rolls to have with it. After our walk, invariably a bit chilly, we’d have a very welcome mini picnic in the car before heading home.

And if it had started to rain, so much the better – there’s something inherently cosy about sitting in a car on the edge of a forest, wrapped up in hat and scarf, drinking hot, thick soup, while rain pounds on the roof!

Now that we’re back in Britain, we’re eating lots and lots of stews and soups because let’s face it, Blighty is great for veggies at this time of year, and also, our old Eastern European habit of eating seasonally is still an everyday part of our lives.

(Plus, my lovely mother-in-law bought me an awesome Crock-Pot for Chrimbo, which has been really put through its paces this past couple of weeks!)

This leek, potato, and cheese soup is great if like me, you’ve become a little blurred around the edges during the festive period, and are aiming to rectify it. My preferred way of losing weight is by doing 5:2 fasting (eat ‘normally’ but sensibly for five days, and have two fasting days of only consuming 500 calories. It’s much easier than it sounds!), and this soup is really filling on fasting days. I generally don’t eat until around 7.30pm on fasting days, as I like to fast for a good 22 hours (the fast starts after the last meal the night before, and ends with the first meal the day after) but sometimes, especially when I’ve had some time off regular fasting, I have something light mid-afternoon, and then something later on. In cases like this, because it’s under 200 calories per serving, I can have a couple of bowls!

A word of caution though, if you are going to have this as part of a fasting day, or other calorie-controlled diet, be sure to count any bread or croutons, etc. you may have with it. The nutritional information I’ve provided for this recipe is for the soup only. 🙂

Hearty Vegan Potato, Leek, and Cheese Soup

Is…

• thick
• creamy
• warming
• filling
• deliciously comforting
• low-cal
• low-fat
• high-carb
• totally hygge!

Enjoy!

What’s your favourite soup?