This leek soup started with a breakfast. I walked down to Marta's shop — the general store next to Alicia's La Buena Vida bar — early, because Friday is fresh fish day, and it pays to be there first. I picked up a soup pack while I was at it and had my usual tostada con tomate and café con leche next door. The pack that morning was carrots, leek, celery, and parsnip. No turnip, which is what I'd usually expect, but parsnips had turned up instead. I bought it anyway.

Back at Casa Adora, I had a litre of beef bone broth on the hob — simmered for six hours the day before with beef bones, skin-on onions, carrots, bay leaves, and black peppercorns. And there was the aceite verde from Montetucci on the counter. The leek soup practically wrote itself.

Rustic Leek Soup — The Method

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 4 medium leeks, cleaned and sliced into rings
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 parsnip, diced (or carrot if that's what the soup pack brings)
• 1–2 tbsp aceite verde (early-harvest extra virgin olive oil)
• 1 litre fresh beef bone broth
• Fine sea salt to taste

To finish:

• Maldon sea salt flakes
• A ribbon of aceite verde

Method

1. Warm the aceite verde in a pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, onion, and parsnip. Sweat gently for 10–12 minutes until soft, glossy, and sweet – you want them yielding and fragrant, not browned.
2. Pour in the beef bone broth. Stir, bring to a gentle simmer, and cook for 20 minutes until the flavours come together.
3. Taste and season with fine sea salt. The broth should be clean, savoury, and lightly sweet from the leeks.
4. Ladle into bowls. Finish with a ribbon of aceite verde and a few Maldon flakes for brightness.

A Few Notes from the Casa Adora Kitchen

The broth: This leek soup is only as good as the stock behind it. I used a six-hour beef bone broth — the recipe is here if you want to make your own. A good quality shop-bought beef stock will work in a pinch, but homemade is worth the effort.

The soup pack: Marta's soup packs vary week to week depending on what's come in. Parsnip replaced the usual turnip this Friday — it worked beautifully, adding a gentle sweetness that rounded out the leeks. Use whatever the pack brings, or just carrots if you're buying separately.

The olive oil: Aceite verde from Montetucci — our local olive mill — is early-harvest extra virgin, grassy and peppery with a vivid green character. A good extra virgin olive oil is the finishing touch this soup needs. Don't skip it and don't use anything you wouldn't put on bread.

The simplicity: This is not a complicated soup. It is a very good one.

This leek soup recipe is part of my Soup Recipes collection. Wonky photos, proper soup, genuine adventures – The Flexible Chef.