Simple, tasty, nourishing. This potato leek soup recipe is an easy to make autumn favorite. Double or triple it and have this favorite stocked in your freezer for a quick meal.!
What is potato leek soup?
Potato leek soup is a simple soup made from mainly, you guessed it, potatoes and leeks.
What are leeks?
Leeks are a vegetable in the Allium family like onions or garlic. They look like a giant green onion and have a very mild onion flavor. They grow pretty well where I am in NW Washington and the leeks I grow are usually ready for me to use in the fall. Pretty convenient because that’s also when we typically harvest potatoes. It’s a match made in soup heaven.
What part of the leek do you use?
You can use the white and some of the green parts of leeks. The darker green parts near the top of the plant are very fibrous. I trim those off and toss them in the compost.
How do you clean and cut a leek?
It’s easy if you follow these steps:
- Cut the root end off the leek.
- Cut the dark green tops off the leek.
- Cut the leek down the middle lengthwise.
- Check inside to make sure there isn’t any trapped dirt, rinse if nessecary.
- Thinly slice the leek into short ribbons.
Is potato leek soup vegetarian?
My recipe for potato leek soup is not vegetarian because I use chicken broth for the liquid. I also sometimes add bacon. If one chose to, you could swap the chicken broth in this recipe for vegetable broth (hopefully homemade).
What do you need to make potato leek soup?
Potato leek soup has pretty simple ingredients. If you’re like me and you stock a good pantry you will most likely have everything you need on hand except for the leeks.
Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Leeks
- Celery
- Garlic
- Chicken Broth
- Butter
- Chicken Fat (more butter can be subbed)
- Salt, pepper and thyme
- Bacon (optional but tasty)
How do you make potato leek soup creamy?
This potato leek soup recipe does have cream in it, but that’s not really what makes it so creamy. The trick is adding lots of good potatoes and when the soup is done cooking, remove a few cups of it and blend it. When you add it back into the pot it makes the whole soup nice and creamy.
Can you make ahead potato leek soup?
Absolutely! This soup stores and reheats well. I would think you could make it up to 3 days ahead if you were planning a busy party. If you’re planning for that, just skip adding the cream and bacon (if you’re using it) until you’re reheating it and right before you serve it.
How can you preserve potato leek soup?
The simplest way to preserve potato leek soup is to freeze it. Most people have access to a freezer in this day and age and I find it a great use of space to have some ready to eat soups in mine.
If I’m making a big batch of any soup that has cream as an ingredient specifically for freezing I always leave the cream out. I freeze it without the cream and make a note on the label to add cream when reheating just before serving.
There is nothing wrong with freezing dairy. I just think it tastes better when adding fresh. If I happen to have leftovers with cream already added, I will still freeze and use the soup just the same and it’s still good.
If you’re cool enough to have a freeze dryer you can totally freeze-dry this soup for long term storage.
How to freeze potato leek soup
Here at Preserving Today we are all about making the most of the time spent in the kitchen. Freezing extra soup is a must. There are many ways to package your soups for freezing. I have 2 preferred ways of doing this:
- Use Souper Cubes silicone moulds to freeze your soup in perfect 1 cup or 2 cup portions.
- Use quart size restaurant to go containers to freezer your potato leek soup. (You can wash and reuse them!)
What are Souper Cubes?
Souper cubes are a smart invention. While they are a little pricey for my budget I have definitely got a lot of use out of them. The moulds make it so you can freeze exact portions in perfect little blocks. After the food is frozen, just pop them out of the Souper Cubes and place them in a ziplock freezer bag. The moulds are ready to use again and the soup bricks stack neatly in the freezer.
What equipment do you need to make potato leek soup?
- Heavy bottom pot, I use a Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven like this one.
- Cutting Board
- Sharp Knife
- Vegetable Peeler
- Long Handled Wooden Spoon
- Immersion Blender (or any blender). I use this one.
- Frying pan if you’re adding bacon. I cook bacon in a cast iron skillet like this one.
I use my Lodge Dutch Oven all the time! It’s the best. I even use it to bake my sourdough bread. A great investment for your kitchen.
How long can you keep potato leek soup in the fridge?
Leftovers of this potato leek soup can be left in the fridge for 5-7 days. To reheat, simply put it in a sauce pan and heat it to simmering over a medium heat. Add more cream if desired.
What to serve with potato leek soup?
I think this soup is pretty filling so I don’t ever serve it with anything besides a nice loaf of sourdough bread or some homemade crackers.
Check out the video
As you can see in this video, your ingredients don’t have to be pretty. If I ever have potatoes that are drying out or starting to grow eyes I always make soup with them. You can peel them and cut any eyes or black spots off.
Same goes for the leeks. If they are starting to turn brown or get slimy just peel the first couple layers off the outside and inside you’ll have some tasty fresh leeks for you to use.
Is potato leek soup keto friendly?
Potatoes are high in carbohydrates but they can easily be swapped for cauliflower to make this recipe low carb friendly. The flavor will be a bit different but the texture will be close. Definitely add the bacon too!
I found this recipe and it looks like it would be great for a more low carb friendly soup similar to this one.
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The Best Potato Leek Soup Recipe | Big Batch From Scratch
Equipment
- Heavy bottom pot
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Vegetable peeler
- Long handled spoon
- Measuring cups
- Frying pan
Ingredients
- 3 Tbl Grass Fed Butter
- 3 Tbl Chicken Fat or more butter
- 3 lbs Russet Potato peeled and diced
- 3 Large Leeks or 5 medium, cleaned and sliced
- 5-6 Stalks Celery diced
- 5-6 Cloves Garlic minced
- 6 cups real Bone Broth chicken is best
- A few Sprigs of Thyme or 1 tablespoon dry thyme
- 1 1/2 tsp Salt more to taste
- 2 tsp Coarse Ground Black Pepper
- 5 strips bacon cooked, drained and diced
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
Instructions
- If using bacon, fry it and leave it on a paper towel to drain the grease. Dice cooked bacon when cool enough to handle.
- Peel potatoes and cut into 1-2 inch cubes.
- Clean and thinly slice leeks.
- Dice celery.
- Add butter and chicken fat to a heavy bottom pot and melt over medium-high heat.
- Add leeks and sauté for a few minutes to soften.
- Add celery and stir well, sautéing for a minute or two.
- Add potatoes and stir well.
- Add salt, pepper and thyme.
- When potatoes are hot add chopped garlic. Stir together for about 30 seconds, careful to not burn the garlic.
- Add chicken stock and stir well.
- Bring to a boil and immediately lower to a simmer.
- Place lid on the pot slightly askew to vent.
- Set timer and simmer for 12 minutes.
- Check potatoes for doneness with a fork.
- Add cream and stir until warmed through, turn off heat.
- Remove about 4 or 5 cups of soup and place in a heat safe bowl.
- Carefully blend that soup with immersion blender. (If you don’t have one, you can use any blender, or skip this step all together.
- Return blended soup to pot and stir well.
- Add cooked bacon if using.
- Serve immediately.
- If freezing, let cool to room temperature stirring occasionally before packing and moving to the freezer.
Have you made potato leek soup before? Is it close to this, or something different? Let me know in the comments. Check back soon for more big batch from scratch recipes. Thanks for reading!
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