Potato Leek Soup and Goats

I made potato leek soup for the first time:

The recipe calls for two pounds of potatoes. I used a combination of store-bought potatoes and the remaining few garden potatoes that I had grown last year:

I love this recipe - the only fat in it comes from the butter I used to saute' the leeks:

Part of my interest in this recipe (aside from loving potatoes) is that I had never cooked with leeks before. Yes, I know, I'm but a baby in the kitchen:

I loved the smell as it was cooking. I adore onions, but my husband can't stand them, so I rarely have the opportunity to cook with them:

After simmering the soup for about 20 minutes, I took half of the soup out and pureed it to thicken it. I didn't puree it all because I'm one of those folks who likes a bit of texture in her soup:

The soup was good. Delicious in fact and (bonus!) my husband even liked it, but the part I'm trying to get to in my story is where I took the tops I had cut from the leeks and tried to feed them to my goats.

You see, almost everything that I put in my compost bin these days, I first try to feed to the goats. I was very doubtful that they'd have anything to do with these onion-y vegetables, but I wanted to at least give it a shot:

And, if I'd had to place a bet, my bet would have been that Pete would at least try them. He totally did:

He pretty much gobbled them down:

My other bet would have been that Reggie would turn up his nose at them.
Sure enough, Reggie gave it the old team effort, but he's really a very picky guy...for a goat, anyway:

He ran the stalks through his lips a couple times but it was clear he got no real enjoyment from it. I think he was just trying to make me happy:

And that's my story for today.... about potato leek soup and goats.

Potato Leek Soup Recipe

Ingredients
3 large leeks, cut lengthwise, separate, clean. Use only the white and pale green parts, chop.
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp butter
2 cups water
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarian option)*
2 lbs potatoes, peeled, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
Tabasco sauce or other red chili sauce (I used 1/2 - 1 tsp Hungarian hot paprika instead)
Salt & Pepper
*If cooking gluten-free, be sure to use gluten-free broth.

Method
1 Cook leeks and garlic in butter with salt and pepper in a medium sized sauce pan. Cover pan, cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Check often. Do not brown leeks! Browning will give leeks a burnt taste.

2 Add water, broth, and potatoes. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Scoop about half of the soup mixture into a blender, puree and return to pan. Add a few dashes of tabasco sauce (or Hungarian hot paprika) to taste. Add some freshly ground pepper, 1-2 teaspoons salt or more to taste.

Serves 4-6.