I have to admit I much prefer making gazpacho on these seemingly endless days of temperatures well over 100F. With gazpacho I just drop a bunch of raw vegetables in a blender, whiz them up, adjust for salt and acid, and I am done. With Vichyssoise I needed to peel and chop onions, clean (ugh) and chop 3 leeks, and peel and chop 2 lbs. of potatoes!

To try to keep the kitchen cool, I used my Instant Pot. When it was time to vent the steam John carried the pot outside! Except for the peeling and chopping the soup was actually very easy to make. Here’s how I did it.

Into the Instant Pot put one roughly chopped onion, 3 leeks (white parts only), cleaned and cut into half moons, one clove chopped garlic, two pounds of russet potatoes, 32 oz. of chicken or vegetable stock, and 1 teaspoon of table salt. Set the Instant Pot on Soup for 10 minutes. When the cooking is complete vent the steam. Using a stick blender, purée the soup. Add 1/4 cup (or more) of heavy cream. Taste for salt level. Chill. In order to get my soup chilled in time for dinner I put the entire metal bowl from the instant Pot in a larger bowl of ice water. That cooled it down somewhat. To get it chilled the rest of the way, I put containers of soup in the freezer for 40 minutes. When serving I garnished the bowls with chives and chive flowers plus extra virgin olive oil.

We really enjoyed the cool silky soup. The mashed up avocado spread on toast was good too!