Vegan potato leek soup

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/430°F and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Take the vegan butter out of the fridge and let it soften.
Peel and slice the onion, it doesn't matter how big you slice it because it's all going to be blitzed anyway!
Peel and chop the garlic.
Slice and wash the leeks. Again it doesn't matter how big you slice it.
Peel the potatoes, and then cut into cubes. The smaller the cubes, the quicker they cook.
If you use fresh thyme, take it off the stems and chop them. Also chop the chives for the garnish.

Heat up a bit of oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion and garlic until the onion is soft and translucent. Then add in the leeks followed by the thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Continue to cook this until the leeks are soft.

Once the leeks are soft, add in the potatoes and stir this through. Then add in the vegetable stock. Bring this to a boil and then simmer the soup for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. To check this, mash them with a fork. Then blitz the soup with an immersion blender until you have a smooth soup. If you don't have an immerion blender, blend it in batches in a food processor. Be careful with this though.

Taste and adjuse the soup (mine needed some salt). Then add in the smoked paprika.
Finally add in the vegan heavy cream replacement. This is optional, but it gives the soup a nice creaminess! Make sure the soup doesn't boil again once you've added the cream. Heat the soup through, but don't boil. While the soup is on the stove on low, you can make the garlic bread.

Mix the ingredients for the garlic butter together. Cut a baguette in half and spread the butter on the cut-side of both halves. Then put them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 15 minutes on 220°C/430°F or until golden brown and crispy.

Pour the soup in a bowl and sprinkle some of the chives on top. You can add some extra vegan heavy cream. I also really like to serve this with chopped vegan 'bacon' slices (like the one from Vivera).

Nutritional values are without the garlic bread, just the soup!