Hands up – do any of you worry constantly whether your children are eating a balanced diet?
I know I do.
Since Robyn is still quite receptive to new foods I’m not as concerned but Gabriel, the super fussy eater in the house, is a whole other kettle of fish. Through lots of trial and error I discovered he likes smooth soups and butternut squash soup is his favourite. When there are no butternuts lying around I make them leek and potato soup. For added fun factor I serve the soup in cups with straws which intrigue them immediately.
Leek and potato soup is not just for children though! The leeks lend sweetness to this hot, hearty and robust soup. In the summer months it can be served cold and is then known as Vichyssoise. The French, the original creators of this dish, know it as Potage Bonne Femme.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Leeks are rich in folate, vitamin C, potassium, calcium and phosphorus. Just like leeks, potatoes contain vitamin C and potassium, but also five out of the eight B vitamins and other minerals. What I’m trying to tell you is that this soup is good for you!
Leek & Potato Soup and Special Diets
If you looked at the recipe below you’re probably yelling at the screen right now. How can all that loads of butter and cream possibly be good for you? If you ate it on a daily basis, it probably isn’t. The original recipe is for special occasions when you have guests over or simply want to please yourself if you’re in desperate need of some comfort food. Of course, the beauty of cooking is that all recipes can be tweaked. Here’s how to make it healthier.
Weight Watchers and other Low Fat Diets
Leave out the butter and use low fat cooking spray to fry the onion, leek, celery and garlic. Omit the double cream and add a total of 1 litre (4 cups/almost 2 pints) of stock to the vegetables. 1 ProPoint per serving!
Vegetarian
Use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
Vegan
Use olive/vegetable/sunflower oil instead of butter. Use vegetable stock instead. Soy milk or other dairy alternatives can be used instead of cream or simply add extra vegetable stock.
Gluten-Free and Lactose-Free
Follow the vegan route above and use gluten-free stock cubes.
Baby Food
Leave out the garlic, stock, salt and cream. Boil the vegetables in 1 litre (4 cups/almost 2 pints) water instead.
Just Lighten It Up
Don’t want to use double cream? Why not substitute it with something healthier instead? For example: single cream, crème fraîche, milk, skim milk, stock or water.
How long will it keep in the fridge?
Two days at most.
Can I Freeze Leek and Potato Soup?
Yes, BUT don’t add the cream to the soup until after it has thawed and been reheated.
How To Spice Up Your Leek and Potato Soup
Chances are you will like this soup so much that you’ll make it again and again. Here are two ideas to spice it up:
- 5ml (1 tsp) ground cumin, just add to vegetables before pouring in the stock
- 2.5ml (½ tsp) dry-roasted cumin seeds, 2.5ml (½ tsp) dry-roasted black peppercorns, 2.5ml (½ tsp) dry-roasted coriander seeds – crushed with mortar and pestle and added to the vegetables.
Other Recipe Variations
Did I hear some men grumbling in the background? Oh, right. There’s no meat in this soup. Well, we can fix that! Here are some other variations with meat and other interesting twists on this recipe.
Bacon, Leek and Potato Soup
Heat a large, ovenproof pot over medium high heat. Add 5 slices of back bacon and cook until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, crumble and set aside. Carry on frying the vegetables in the bacon dripping, instead of butter, and follow recipe below. When soup is blended, add the crumbled bacon on top.
Leek and Potato Soup with Bacon and Chicken
Exactly the same as Bacon, Leek and Potato Soup recipe above but you can add 200-300g of shredded cooked chicken in the end.
Leek, Potato and Blue Cheese Soup
Before blending the soup add 100g (4oz) of blue cheese, such as Cashel Blue or Stilton, to the soup. When soup is served sprinkle another 50g (2oz) on top. If using a stronger blue cheese such as Roquefort or Gorgonzola use slightly less; about 100g (3oz) in total.
Parsley Soup
While the soup is simmering, take a large bunch of continental parsley and remove the large stalks. Bring a pan of water to a boil and blanch the parsley in this for 1 minute, then refresh by immersing in cold water. Add the cooked parsley to the soup and liquidise.
Spinach Soup
Add a pinch of nutmeg to the sweating vegetables. While the soup is simmering, blanch 500g (1lb) of spinach in a pan of boiling water then refresh by immersing in cold water. Add the cooked spinach to the soup and liquidise.
Watercress Soup
Follow the recipe and when the soup has finished cooking add 4 bunches of watercress. The latter will wilt and then you can blend the soup.
Wild Garlic Soup
Drop a few leaves into the leek and potato soup base about halfway through cooking, then blend.
Rocket Soup
Follow the recipe and when the soup has finished cooking add 4 big handfuls of rocket. The latter will wilt and then you can blend the soup. Hard stalk may need to be removed beforehand.
What to serve with Leek and Potato Soup
Still not satisfied? Well, toast 8 slices of baguette, top them with oodles of grated Gruyère cheese and place under a preheated grill until the cheese melts. Tada!
Wine Pairing
What a great comfort food in the winter yet light and healthy lunch in the summer. Perfect for matching to a crisp white wine and why not consider putting a splash into the soup whilst it’s cooking too?
Cheverny is made predominantly from the Sauvignon Blanc grape, better known for producing Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé just down the road. The wine is really clean and fresh with a character of wet earth, lime zest and grapefruit that works perfectly with leeks of any description. The texture is smooth and light so compliments the soup beautifully. Buy it here.
Other tips when making Leek & Potato Soup
- When sweating onions or other vegetables for a long time, cover them with a butter wrapper or a piece of greaseproof paper as well as the saucepan lid. This helps to retain the moisture and makes sure they don’t burn.
- Remember to adjust the seasoning before you serve Vichyssoise – cold soups sometimes need a bit of perking up. Serve in chilled soup plates.
Easy Leek & Potato Soup
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
The ONLY recipe you will ever need for Leek & Potato Soup. Special diets friendly and lots of variations included.
Ingredients
- 50g (1¾ oz) butter
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 leeks, white part only, chopped
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 200g (7 oz) potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 750ml (26fl oz/3 cups) chicken stock
- 220ml (7¾ fl oz) double [heavy] cream
- 30ml (2 tbsp) chives, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the onion, leek, celery and garlic.
- Let the vegetables sweat over a low heat until they are softened but not browned. This will take about 12 to 15 minutes.
- Add the potato and stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer, covered for 20 minutes.
- Allow to cool a little before puréeing in a blender or food processor. Return to the clean saucepan. (If you have a hand blender there is no need to wait. You can blend the soup immediately.)
- Bring the soup gently back to the boil and stir in the cream.
- Season with salt and pepper and reheat without boiling.
- Serve hot or well chilled, garnished with chives.
Notes
- Your favourite type of bread, buttered, will go down a storm.
- For 1 Weightwatchers Propoint per serving: Substitute the butter with non-fat oil spray. Omit the cream and use a total of 1 litre (4 cups) of stock instead.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Boil
- Cuisine: French
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 224.8
- Calories: 434
- Sugar: 4 g
- Sodium: 281 mg
- Fat: 36.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 6.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 24.4 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 3.1 g
- Cholesterol: 27 mg
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Yi @ Yi Resevation says
stumbled on to your site today. The leek soup looks absolutely delicious! I’ll go with the Bacon, Leek and Potato variation! Great pictures. Thanks for sharing!
Jeanne @ CookSister! says
Wow! Everything you ever wanted to know about leek and potato soup but were too afraid to ask ;o) Sounds awesome – I would chuck in the bacon!
Brandon | Gourmet Italian Food says
I cant wait to try the Bacon Leek and Potato! Great images, its not easy to make soup looks sexy!
Michelle says
Trust me, this soup is very sexy. Let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Jessica says
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! The page is laid out beautifully in a very user-friendly, health-conscious (so many dietetic variations! how wonderfully considerate of you) way. I love that you include simple suggestions for modifications. I’m making the soup from scratch the first time tonight, though I won’t be blending it (haven’t wanted to make space for a blender in my tiny Japanese apartment) and I’m excited to try it! Thanks again. 🙂
Michelle says
Thanks for the appreciation, Jessica. I do try to be as helpful as possible in my articles. Surely you can get a stick/hand blender in Japan? It’s not nearly as bulky and can even fit into a drawer. That said, I think the soup will taste darn fine too unblended!
Jessica says
Oh, it’s entirely possible…I could probably buy one at my local grocery market…my dilemma boils down to buying that or finding space enough to justify buying a blender (and making smoothies! and milkshakes!)- then actually finding a blender that doesn’t entail the risk of cheap plastic bits exploding across my kitchen/into my face in some sort of epic scalding accident… hah. 😉 The soup was fantastic unblended, I simply mashed some of the potato with a spoon and dumped enough gorgonzola cheese in to make it a cheesy carbtastic flavor-explosion in my mouth. Cheap, soothing and delicious~
Michelle says
You’re suffering analysis paralysis, just buy a blender! 😛 That said, you’ve made a great improvisation and I’m sure other readers without blenders will follow your suggestions.
Barbie says
Michelle just want to say I made the bacon, leek and potato soup with a few additions and it was delicious. I like blue cheese and thought the addition with the bacon would be nice and when I had fried up the bacon, I deglazed the pan with my secret ingredient, Vermouth and then added the onions and leeks and added the blue cheese, instead of cream as I was blending. What can I say – it was delicious – thank you for the recipe. This one will be a stayer that is for sure and so easy to do.
Michelle says
Wowee, Barbie. Your soup sounds decadent! When can I come over???
Thanks for the great feedback!
Barbie says
Jessica ever thought of buying just a hand blender – that is my most used gadget in the kitchen and doesn’t take up much space!
Nikki Jackson says
Just made your leek & potato soup, i didnt use garlic (dont have any in the house) or celery (dont like it so never buy it) or the cream, but even without these it tastes yummy & is probably not too bad for my diet!
Michelle says
To be honest I rarely put celery in my soup and when I remember some garlic. Cream-wise I just add a dollop on top in each bowl when everything’s served. As you discovered, it would still taste great.
Debbie says
What a very clever girl you are, your site is wonderful, friendly and a pleasure to browse through x x
Sylvia says
Hi Michelle. Greetings from Canada!!! Wonderful soup and the pictures were so helpful…especially since most recipes here are by measurement and not weight. (we would be more likely to say 2 large potatoes and not 200g). My son is a trained chef here and he often tells me that cooking/baking by weight is much more accurate…time to hunt down a good kitchen scale. Thanks for helping with dinner :).
Michelle says
Hey, Sylvia. Your son is correct. As a recipe developer it is a bit tricky sometimes to get weights for the different ingredients but I won’t stop trying. Happy eating!
Andrea says
Just made the leek and potato soup……….YUM!! Great meal on a cold night-the fam gobbled it down! I added carrots, more celery(only because I read the recipe wrong)more potatoes and threw in cubed ham! Also, I only blended about half of the soup leaving a few bits to chew on! It was wonderful! Thank you, next time I am going to do the bacon, vermouth and blue cheese as Barbie suggested! Sounds unbelievable!
nancy el says
made it, loved it. only change used evaporated milk as don’t always have cream on hand.. it was smooth .
nancy el says
made it, loved it. only change used evaporated milk as don’t always have cream on hand.. it was smooth .
Liam says
Michelle this an amazing recipe i i have made it countless times following your instructions and every time i serve it up my guests are always amazed with it and for my part so easy to prepare of course you have done all the hard part .i haven’t tried any of the recommended alternatives yet but next time i might just try the bacon.I have only taken up cooking as my wife passed away but i find this recipe so easy to follow
Thanks for posting this recipe on line
Sarah says
thesloppyperfectionist.blogspot.com
Thanks for the recipe! I received leeks in my produce delivery for the first time and decides to use your recipe. I used veg broth and didn’t have celery or chives. It was yummy. I will definitely make again and add some more spices. Thanks for putting such a lovely, detailed list of variations and pairings! So thoughtful. I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes!
Thanks,
Sarah
Jim says
Added hot Italian chicken sausage(cooked) at the step where the cream(used half and half) is added. The flavors and added zip from the sausage infused the rest of the soup. Great recipe to build off of, love it.
Jim says
Added hot Italian chicken sausage(cooked) at the step where the cream(used half and half) is added. The flavors and added zip from the sausage infused the rest of the soup. Great recipe to build off of, love it.
Jim says
Added hot Italian chicken sausage(cooked) at the step where the cream(used half and half) is added. The flavors and added zip from the sausage infused the rest of the soup. Great recipe to build off of, love it.
Eden says
This was beautiful!! I added green chilliest to the first stage and a bit of curry powder to give it some more flavour! Didn’t need to add salt it went down a storm! I’ve made a load to freeze later but I’ll probably eat it all this week!
★★★★★
michelle says
Wow, Eden. Great job on being creative and putting your own spin on this recipe. Sounds delicious!
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michelle says
thank you :))