Potato Leek Soup Recipe
Creamy, velvety smooth Potato Leek Soup is simple and so comforting. Made with Yukon gold potatoes, leek, celery, chicken stock, and cream, this potato soup has the very best texture and flavor!
This classic French soup is a family favorite for good reason! It’s very easy to make with a few simple ingredients. Gold potatoes and leeks compliment each other harmoniously and give the soup a really great amount of flavor. It’s simply seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf. It’s made deliciously creamy with heavy whipping cream.
Yukon gold potatoes are the absolute best to be used in potato leek soup. It gives the soup its creamiest, softest texture and a slight sweetness. I also like to give the leeks a little sear first to bring out the natural flavors that get infused into the soup.
Other than that, all you need is some chicken stock to bring it all together! You can swap it with Vegetable Stock to make this potato and leek soup vegetarian if you’d like. I’m just a sucker for some Homemade Chicken Stock and love sneaking it in wherever I can!
How to Make Potato Leek Soup
To clean and cut the leek:
Lay the leeks down on a cutting board and cut off the dark green leaves and the very bottom by the roots. Discard the dark green leaves or save it for making Homemade Vegetable Stock.
Cut the white stalks in half, length-wise. Rinse off each half under some cold running water. Make sure to get in between the layers because dirt likes to hide there! Shake the water off very well and start slicing.
Prepare the ingredients: Slice each leek half into thinly, width-wise. Wash and slice celery ribs as well. Peel or wash potatoes and cut them into cubes.
Sauté the celery and leeks: Preheat the pot over medium heat and melt butter. Sauté leeks in butter until soft. Add celery and sauté it until leeks start to get some sear.
Potatoes and stock: Add potatoes and sauté for a couple more minutes. Add bay leaf and thyme sprigs to the pot and pour in chicken stock. Pour in enough chicken stock just to cover the potatoes.
Cook: Season with salt and pepper, stir well, bring to boil and lower the heat to medium low. Cook over gentle simmer until potatoes are tender.
Make it creamy: Take out the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Stir in heavy whipping cream until completely incorporated (6).
Blend until smooth: You can transfer the soup into a blender or use an immersion blender to blend the soup. Blend it just until smooth. Don’t blend too much!
PRO TIP: Blending the soup too much will lead to a gummy texture. Break up as much of the potatoes as you can with a wooden spoon before adding them to the blender. Just pulse a few times until blended.
Freezing Instructions
You can freeze this potato soup but do so without cream. Prepare the soup according to the recipe but do not add the cream. Blend it and cool to room temperature before freezing.
PRO TIP: It’s best to cool food as quickly as you can before freezing it. After the soup is blended, place the pot into a larger container filled with ice and make sure to stir it from time to time as it cools.
You can use one large container, large freezer bag, or divide it into smaller zip-top freezer bags for individual servings. Be sure to leave some room at the top to allow for expansion as the soup freezes. Label and freeze for up to 2 months.
Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Reheat it over medium-low heat on stovetop and stir in heavy cream.
Storing and Reheating
Wait for the potato leek soup to cool to room temperature prior to storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Properly stored, it should keep for 3-4 days.
To reheat individual portions in the microwave, reheat for 30 seconds at a time and stir each time it stops. Be careful not to overheat it!
Recipe FAQs
Why is my potato leek soup gummy?
When potatoes are blended too much or overly mashed they release more starches. These starches mix with the broth and create a gummy texture.
To avoid that, simply rinse the potatoes a couple of times with cold water after you peel and cut them. This will wash off some starches.
Also, searing potatoes before boiling them helps reduce the gummy texture. And of course, don’t blend too much! Break up as much of the potatoes as you can with a wooden spoon before adding them to the blender. Just pulse a few times until blended.
More Recipes To Try
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Potato Leek Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 leeks
- 3 celery ribs
- 2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 fresh thyme sprigs
- 4 cups chicken stock
- salt
- fresh cracked black pepper
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Cleaning Leek:
- Cut off the dark green leaves and the very bottoms by the roots. (Discard the dark green leaves or save it for making homemade stock.)
- Cut the white stalks in half, length-wise. Rinse off each half under some cold running water. Make sure to get in between the layers because dirt likes to hide there. Shake the water off very well and the halves are not ready to slice.
Potato Leek Soup:
- Slice each leek half into thinly, width-wise. Wash and slice celery ribs as well. Peel or wash potatoes and cut them into cubes.
- Preheat the pot over medium heat and melt butter. Saute leeks in butter until soft. Add celery and saute it until leeks start to get some sear.
- Add potatoes and saute for a couple more minutes.
- Add bay leaf and thyme sprigs to the pot and pour in chicken stock. Pour in enough chicken stock just to cover the potatoes. (Too much stock will result in a thin soup.)
- Season with salt and pepper, stir well, bring the soup to boil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until potatoes are tender, make sure to stir from time to time.
- Take out the bay leaf and thyme sprigs.
- Stir in heavy whipping cream until completely incorporated.
- You can transfer the soup into a blender or use an immersion blender to blend the soup. Pulse a few times just until smooth. Note: Blending the soup too much will lead to a gummy texture. Break up as much of the potatoes as you can with a wooden spoon before adding them to the blender. Just pulse a few times until blended.
Video
Notes
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Storing: Wait for the potato leek soup to cool to room temperature prior to storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Properly stored, it should keep for 3-4 days.
To reheat individual portions in the microwave, reheat for 30 seconds at a time and stir each time it stops. Be careful not to overheat it! - Freezing: You can freeze this potato soup but do so without cream. Prepare the soup according to the recipe but do not add the cream. Blend it and cool to room temperature before freezing.
You can use one large container, large freezer bag, or divide it into smaller zip-top freezer bags for individual servings. Be sure to leave some room at the top to allow for expansion as the soup freezes. Label and freeze for up to 2 months.
Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Reheat it over medium-low heat on stovetop and stir in heavy cream. - Heavy whipping cream options: it’s best to use in a creamy soup because it makes rich and creamy consistency. If you don’t have any, you can always use a couple of tablespoons of sour cream and either half and half or whole milk. To keep it dairy free, you could use plant based milk and a little plant based sour cream.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in October 2019.
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
I made this for the first time last week ( not a cooked celery fan so I left it out) This was delicious. My husband said it was the best soup he’d ever had. This week I made some more to take to a friend who was under the weather. Their family loved it too. I just emailed them your recipe 🙂
Thank you.
I am so glad you liked it, Norma!
This soup was amazing and so easy to make. Because I bragged about now everyone wants the recipe. For the topping I added shredded cheddar cheese , sour dough croutons. Just one tip: after cutting up potatoes rinse under cold water and put on bowl of the chicken stock while sautéing the leek and celery. I used a Dutch oven and kept it on med-low and it was perfect.
I am so glad you liked the recipe. Sour dough croutons sound amazing with it!
Can this be made without adding the heavy cream? Milk products cause problems for someone in my family. We can use the butter. It looks delicious. Thanks
Hi Karen,
There are a few options they can try. If it’s lactose, there is lactose-free half and half you can use. You can check their store for brands of dairy free half and half or Heavy whipping cream options, I know Silk makes dairy free Heavy whipping cream, country crock makes one too and horizon organic. I don’t recommend milk substitutes like almond milk because it has an odd flavor when heated you may not like and oat milk is sweet.
Found your recipe and made it today- EXCELLENT! Love it!
So happy you love it, Hank! Thanks for stopping by to let me know! 🙂
This looks wonderful. Do you have any recipes that use celery stock besides a celery soup? I have been making my own stocks and have a bunch of celery pieces I thought maybe would make some good stock. Thank you