Leek and Potato Soup is a thick and creamy classic French Potato Soup that starts with garlic butter in which leeks are slowly sautéed to bring out the sweet flavour.
It’s simple to make, cosy and comforting yet also luxurious and elegant. I love how this Leek Soup can be Couch Food OR an elegant starter for a dinner party. Good food is a universal language!
Leek and Potato Soup
Though France might be the epicentre of Michelin star restaurants (second only to Tokyo!), where sauces come in the form of foam and dishes are given excessively fancy names, the heart and soul of French food is simple food made well. It’s rustic, cosy, and often generous on the butter and cheese.
Hence French food and I are very good friends. (Hello Quiche Lorraine, Gougeres, Potato au Gratin, French Onion Soup…to name a few of my best mates!)
Leek soup is another such example. (Though, shockingly, no cheese!). Few ingredients, prepared well, simple to make, and so enjoyable.
What goes in Leek and Potato Soup
Here what you need:
Leeks – essential for a LEEK soup!! 😂 Leeks are sweeter and have a more subtle flavour than onions. Though if you are desperate to make this an leeks are obscenely expensive / you can’t get your hands on them, substitute for regular onions (brown, white or yellow);
Potatoes – use starchy or all rounders, they fall apart when simmered which means less blending for creamy soup = less risk of gluey soup*. 🇦🇺Australia: Sebago (dirt brushed, most common potatoes), 🇺🇸US: Russet 🇬🇧UK: Maris Piper;
Broth – I choose chicken because it has more depth of flavour than vegetable stock/broth. But vegetable stock is also ideal here!
Creamy is optional. This soup is still thick and creamy even without, it just adds a luxurious mouthfeel.
* Common problem with Potato Leek Soups that call for blitzing to death until completely smooth. Power of blender = activates starch in potatoes = gluey. Same thing that happens if you use a food processor or blender for mashed potato!
How to cut leeks
Trim the root off. Take a peek and if you can see dirt in the layers, then split the leek in half and separate all the layers, wash them well, then slice per below.
If you don’t see dirt (like mine pictured above), cut your leeks as pictured below:
Cut off the dark green reedy top and discard (leftmost on leek above);
White end (and the very pale green part) – finely slice; and
Pale green middle part – peel off reedy outer layers and finely slice the softer middle part.
How to make Leek and Potato Soup
Leek are like onions – they have a pretty harsh raw flavour. So the key to a really great Leek Soup is to slowly sauté them in garlic butter until they transform and become soft and sweet. It’s kind of like caramelising onions for French Onion Soup – except we don’t take it as far.
After that, just plonk the potatoes and stock in, simmer until the potato is literally crumbling (the softer they are, the less blending we have to do = better soup texture, no risk of “gluey soup”).
Blitz, stir in cream and serve!
I like to serve mine with croutons. Just a teeny tiny sprinkle of crunchy buttery bread somehow magically makes any soup so much more fabulous.
And while this is a potato based soup, that still doesn’t stop me from tearing up hunks of crusty warm bread, slathering in butter and dunking into the soup.
Carb on carb fabulousness! – Nagi x
PS Or try one of these Soup Dippers – these existing on my website pretty much solely for the purpose of dunking into soups and stews.
Soup Dippers
Watch how to make it
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Leek and Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp (30g) butter
- 2 garlic cloves , large, finely minced
- 3 leeks , white and pale green parts only sliced thinly (about 2 cups) (Note 1)
- 1 kg / 2lb potatoes (Sebago/Russet/Maris Piper) , peeled a diced into 1"/2.5cm cubes (Note 2)
- 1.5 litre / 1.5 qt chicken or vegetable stock , low sodium (6 cups)
- 3/4 cup cream , heavy/thickened (sub milk)
- 1 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (table salt – reduce by 25%)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Croutons
- 2 thick slices bread , torn into crouton size pieces
- 1 tbsp melted butter, or olive oil spray
- Salt
Garnish
- Chives , finely chopped
- Extra cream , for garnish
Instructions
- Sauté – Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add garlic and leek and sauté for 7 minutes until soft and sweet.
- Simmer 25 minutes – Add potatoes and broth. Turn heat up and bring to simmer, then place lid on and lower heat so it's simmering gently. Simmer for 25 minutes or until potato is very soft and almost falling apart.
- Minimal blitz – Turn the stove off and puree with a stick blender until JUST smooth. Do not over puree (Note 3).
- Season – Add salt and pepper, then stir through cream.
- Serve, drizzled with cream and sprinkled with chives and croutons.
Croutons
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Drizzle bread with melted butter (or spray with oil). Bake for 5 minutes or until golden and crunchy. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt while hot!
Recipe Notes:
- Australia – Sebago (dirty brushed / common washed potatoes you can get at any supermarket. Do not use red potatoes or new potatoes i.e. the ones that you use for potato salad because they are low in starch so will not break down as much when boiling to create a creamy soup)
- US – Russet
- UK – Maris Piper
- I use vegetable or chicken stock instead of water;
- Leeks are sautéed in garlic butter instead of just simmered in water
- I added garlic. Because in my world, where there is butter, there is garlic!
- I added croutons. Because buttery crunch + creamy leek soup = match made in heaven
Nutrition Information:
Originally published October 2015. Spiffed up March 2020 – most importantly, new Life of Dozer section added!
Life of Dozer
Cactus and Dozer is like me and chilli – I know it’s gonna hurt, but I just can’t resist.
I’ve been making this soup with my mother since I was little. We’ve never used a written recipe and I’ve been looking for one. This one is very close. I’m excited to try it this week. I never thought to use a blending stick. we just gave it a few good stirs, maybe mash a few of the potatoes, and then added flour to the milk to thicken a little. We also add diced ham.
Oooh I love hearing this sounds similar to the one you made with your mum! I do hope you enjoy it!!
This soup in fabulous! So flavorful! The texture also wonderful. I have been looking for the definitively best leek potato soup and this is it! I’ll look no further!
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it Peggy, thanks for letting me know! I love this recipe too 🙂 N x
My husband and I are participating in a progressive dinner on Friday with 3 other couples. We are responsible for the soup and salad course. Do you think this recipe would serve 8 adults, or should I double it?
Hi Jackie! Definitely double it! 🙂 Great soup for a dinner party! N x
Can someone please tell me if this soup can be frozen, and how. Many,many thanks, Bonnie C
Hi Bonnie, I don’t think I’ve ever frozen it but don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work just fine! All the ingredients in it are perfectly freezable 🙂 N x
Nagi, I’ve literally never had potato soup, much less LEEK & potato soup. IMAGINE MY SURPRISE!! What a delight! My family ate with INTENTION. Their only intention was to deprive me of soup! This is so easy to make, so hard to mess up, & so delicious. Thank you again Nagi!
I know, it’s fabulous isn’t it? The french are genius!! And you’re absolutely right – this is hard to mess up, which is another reason I love it SO MUCH!
Made potato and leek soup on the weekend for our lunch and it was lovely, I make my own stock so we had homemade chicken stock and we had little dinner rolls with it.
Cathy
Oooh! It would have been AMAZING with homemade stock!!!
I live potato soup, no leeks when I was a child, but like so many, this was a childhood favorite that my mom made. I have to agree with your tweek, especially sauteeing the leeks in butter. Someone made the comment, “everything tastes better with butter”, so that brought bacon to mind. A little bit bit crumbled on top? No, not quite as healthy though.
Bacon makes EVERYTHING better. Full stop! 🙂
Love potato soup
Potato leek soup is one of my favorites! I’m definitely going to give this recipe a go – can’t have too many potato leek soup recipes!
I hope you do Brianne!! Julia Child’s recipe (sort of) is a no fail! 😉
Love this potato leek soup! So comforting and looks beautiful!
Thank you Sabrina! N x
One of my favourite soups, but I will admit I always use chicken stock and sauté my leeks in butter. I am a little shocked that Julie didn’t. I mean, butter!
I know! I was shocked too! 😉
I know! I was shocked too! 😉
Nagi, I just made a soup this afternoon and tweaked it quite a lot from a couple of recipes that I would have thought would be spot on. Which they probably are to the creators, but for me they needed those few tweaks. So I totally approve of your slight tweaking of this beautiful soup! And I’m pretty sure Julia wouldn’t have minded either! Leek and potato is such a delicious classic!
Hello fellow tweaker! 🙂 Glad you approve, hope you had a FAB weekend Helen! N x
Haha, yes, the potatoes and leeks in France probably are super-powered! I’m sure Julia wouldn’t mind us making adjustments to her recipes to suit our tastes! The soup looks wonderful, Nagi!
Te he! Right? Anything French is exotic and tastier than what we get! 😉
This looks fantastic! 🙂 And love how you put butter in it. Butter always make everything even better! 😉
Those were the words of the great Julia herself too! N x
Now really. Didn’t Julia know that croutons make everything taste better? This looks so good!
Ha! I’m sure she does!! N x
So lovely and creamy with those marvelous croutons. 🙂 I was craving potato leek soup last week as well, and made a big batch of chunky soup with some double-smoked ham. Delicious. I love your version too. 🙂
Thanks Krista! Oooh. Chunky bits of ham, what a perfect addition! N x
Love a good potato and leek soup, so comforting. Yours sounds delicious and looks so silky smooth, beautiful!
Thank you Fida that’s so kind of you to say! N x
Well we are simpatico…only your pictures are SO much better. 🙂 This looks fabulous, Nagi. xo
Ooooh….I thought of you when I posted this!! And what are you talking about? Your photos are SO EXOTIC! Making me very jealous seeing snippets of your amazing travels! N x
I actually have never had potato and leek soup – but your tweaks sound really good to me. All about bringing out the best flavour of each component, and sautéing the leeks first would certainly achieve that. And I really do think peoples palates have changed – I don’t know if part of it is the strong flavours in global cuisine now, like in Asian and Middle-Eastern dishes, but definitely french food can be relatively bland if not done well. At least according to my grandmother, NZ cuisine fifty years ago was the staples of meat + potato + veg every night in most households, and ingredients like fish sauce, avocados and mangos and even things like pasta and rice (if it wasn’t in rice pudding) were just totally unheard of. It has changed so much since then I can hardly imagine what that would be like – but if you were living then, can you even miss something you don’t know exists or have never tried? I don’t know!
Awesome post as usual Nagi <3
That’s actually a really good point Claudia, I never thought of that i.e. Asian and Middle Eastern foods have such strong flavours compared to some traditional European ones! And NZ and Aust are very similar….Meat and 3 Veg were the staple for many people growing up!! N x
This was our dinner tonight. My mother made this a lot when I was growinh up, thank you for the reminder! I love this soup. Although I used a bit too much garlic this time it was still good.
Thank you Carolina!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I love that this reminds you of your mother making this for you when you were growing up. 🙂 N x
My grandmother was a private chef in eastern French speaking Canada and moved to the states when she was 28. I learned how to cook by watching her and she never ever used a recipe. Not even the back of an envelope, so everything I make that reminds me of my grand-mère comes from trial and error. What does that have to do with anything? LOL I’m getting to the point. She always cooked her potatoes in stock and would cook her leeks on a really low heat for what seemed ages before adding them to the pot.
Your soup is like a trip back home.
How lucky you are! I bet you and your grandmother had fun in the kitchen 🙂 This soup must bring back memories. Thank you for sharing!!! PS I adore the thought that she cooked with a “dash of this and that”. 🙂 N x