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You are here: Home / Cooking Times / b) 30 - 60 mins / Easy Leek & Potato Soup

Easy Leek & Potato Soup

9th February 2012 - By Michelle Minnaar
This post may contain affiliate links.

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Hands up – do any of you worry constantly whether your children are eating a balanced diet? I know I do.

Easy Leek & Potato Soup

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.

Fresh Bread and Butter To Go with Leek & Potato Soup

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.

Chopped Onions, Leeks, Garlic & Celery for Leek & Potato Soup

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!

Peeled and Chopped Potatoes for Leek & Potato Soup

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.

Melt Butter and Fry the Onions and Leeks in it for Leek & Potato Soup

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.
Ready to Cook Leek & Potato Soup

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.

Blending Leek & Potato Soup and Adding Cream

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.
Simple Leek & Potato Soup

By the way, if you love all things French and potatoes, check out these boulangere potatoes.

More smooth vegetable soup recipes

Need some more soup for the soul? Check out these divine recipes.

  • Soup maker mushroom soup
  • Slimming world butternut squash soup
  • Swede soup
  • Zucchini and leek soup
  • Sweet potato and red pepper soup
  • Marrow soup
  • Wild garlic soup
  • Leek and onion soup
  • Pumpkin and sweet potato soup
  • Vegan leek and potato soup
  • Carrot soup
  • Slow cooker sweet potato soup
  • Chestnut soup
  • Watercress soup
  • Chickpea soup
  • Brussels sprouts soup
  • Cauliflower and potato soup
  • Broccoli and stilton soup
  • Leek and potato soup
  • Butternut squash and orange soup
  • Curried carrot and split pea soup
  • Asparagus soup
  • Avocado soup
  • Pea soup
  • Kabocha squash and butter bean soup
  • Kabocha squash soup
  • Potato and fennel soup
  • Curried butternut squash and apple soup
  • Broccoli, pea and leek soup
  • Jerusalem artichoke soup
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Easy Leek & Potato Soup


★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

  • Author: Michelle Minnaar
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x
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Description

The ONLY recipe you will ever need for Leek & Potato Soup. Special diets friendly and lots of variations included.


Scale

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

  1. Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the onion, leek, celery and garlic.
  2. Let the vegetables sweat over a low heat until they are softened but not browned. This will take about 12 to 15 minutes.
  3. Add the potato and stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer, covered for 20 minutes.
  4. 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.)
  5. Bring the soup gently back to the boil and stir in the cream.
  6. Season with salt and pepper and reheat without boiling.
  7. 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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Easy Leek Potato Soup
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Yi @ Yi Resevation says

    10th February 2012 at 1:15 pm

    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!

    Reply
  2. Jeanne @ CookSister! says

    13th February 2012 at 3:16 pm

    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!

    Reply
  3. Brandon | Gourmet Italian Food says

    10th July 2012 at 6:43 pm

    I cant wait to try the Bacon Leek and Potato! Great images, its not easy to make soup looks sexy!

    Reply
  4. Michelle says

    12th July 2012 at 2:42 pm

    Trust me, this soup is very sexy. Let me know how it turns out! 🙂

    Reply
  5. Jessica says

    5th November 2012 at 11:15 am

    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. 🙂

    Reply
  6. Michelle says

    5th November 2012 at 2:54 pm

    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!

    Reply
  7. Jessica says

    5th November 2012 at 3:09 pm

    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~

    Reply
  8. Michelle says

    27th November 2012 at 9:22 am

    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.

    Reply
  9. Barbie says

    4th January 2013 at 8:52 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      1st February 2013 at 9:40 am

      Wowee, Barbie. Your soup sounds decadent! When can I come over???

      Thanks for the great feedback!

      Reply
  10. Barbie says

    4th January 2013 at 8:54 pm

    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!

    Reply
  11. Nikki Jackson says

    14th January 2013 at 1:27 pm

    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!

    Reply
  12. Michelle says

    1st February 2013 at 3:14 pm

    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.

    Reply
  13. Debbie says

    31st May 2014 at 5:05 pm

    What a very clever girl you are, your site is wonderful, friendly and a pleasure to browse through x x

    Reply
  14. Sylvia says

    4th January 2015 at 7:09 pm

    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 :).

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      30th January 2015 at 1:39 pm

      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!

      Reply
  15. Andrea says

    28th January 2015 at 11:46 pm

    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!

    Reply
  16. nancy el says

    3rd February 2015 at 4:42 am

    made it, loved it. only change used evaporated milk as don’t always have cream on hand.. it was smooth .

    Reply
  17. nancy el says

    3rd February 2015 at 4:42 am

    made it, loved it. only change used evaporated milk as don’t always have cream on hand.. it was smooth .

    Reply
  18. Liam says

    5th February 2015 at 3:10 pm

    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

    Reply
  19. Sarah says

    16th May 2015 at 4:23 pm

    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

    Reply
  20. Jim says

    21st May 2016 at 5:29 pm

    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.

    Reply
  21. Jim says

    21st May 2016 at 5:29 pm

    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.

    Reply
  22. Jim says

    21st May 2016 at 5:29 pm

    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.

    Reply
  23. Eden says

    28th April 2017 at 7:51 pm

    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!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • michelle says

      1st May 2017 at 10:21 am

      Wow, Eden. Great job on being creative and putting your own spin on this recipe. Sounds delicious!

      Reply
  24. thailand retirement says

    4th November 2017 at 1:47 pm

    It is really a great and useful piece of info. I’m glad that you just shared
    this helpful info with us. Please stay us informed like this.
    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • michelle says

      5th November 2017 at 9:37 pm

      thank you :))

      Reply

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