Potato Leek Soup
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Cozy up with this comforting potato leek soup, a classic French dish that’s easy to make and endlessly customizable.
Potato leek soup, or potage parmentier, is a French classic. It’s one of the first dishes I learned to make in culinary school, right after a proper omelette and basic vinaigrette, because it’s an essential base soup in French cuisine. You can add watercress to make potage au cresson, serve it chilled as Vichyssoise, or top it with bacon, fried leeks, fresh herbs, or diced vegetables. There are endless variations—just use your imagination (or whatever you have in the kitchen) to make it your own. This potato leek soup recipe is simple to whip up and can be served as an appetizer, paired with a Reuben sandwich or wedge salad, or enjoyed as a satisfying lunch on its own.
What You’ll Need To Make Potato Leek Soup
Step-by-Step Instructions
Potato leek soup is simple to make, but first you have to deal with the leeks. They’re notoriously sandy and dirty, and very good at hiding it, so be sure to wash them well. Start by cutting off and discarding the root ends and thick dark green parts. Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and rinse each half under cold water, pulling apart the layers to remove any grit that’s tucked inside.
Once the leeks are clean, roughly chop them — you should get about five cups of chopped leeks from four large leeks.
To make the soup, melt the butter in a Dutch oven or large soup pot, then add the chopped leeks and garlic.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and wilted.
Next, add the potatoes, chicken broth, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil.
Then cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
Fish out the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
Purée the soup with a hand-held immersion blender (or in a regular blender) until smooth. (If using a standard blender, be sure not to fill the jar more than halfway; leave the hole in the lid open and cover loosely with a dishtowel to allow the heat to escape.)
Finally, add the heavy cream. You can reduce the amount if you’d like but I wouldn’t leave it out entirely. Cream makes the soup deliciously silky, rich, and smooth—just add it little by little until the soup tastes good to you.
Bring to a simmer, then taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve hot, garnished with fresh thyme, chives, or anything you like.
Video Tutorial
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Potato Leek Soup
Cozy up with this comforting potato leek soup, a classic French dish that’s easy to make and endlessly customizable.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 large leeks, white and light green parts only, roughly chopped (about 5 cups)
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped into ½-inch pieces
- 7 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Chives, finely chopped, for serving
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring regularly, until soft and wilted, about 10 minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary so as not to brown.
- Add the potatoes, broth, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper to pot and bring to a boil. Cover and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are very soft.
- Fish out the thyme sprig and bay leaves, then purée the soup with a hand-held immersion blender until smooth. (Alternatively, use a standard blender to purée the soup in batches; see note.) Add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. If soup is too thin, simmer until thickened. If it's too thick, add water or stock to thin it out. Garnish with fresh herbs if desired.
- Note: If using a standard blender to purée the soup: be sure not to fill the jar more than halfway; leave the hole in the lid open and cover loosely with a dishtowel to allow the heat to escape; and pour blended soup into a clean pot.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The soup can be frozen, without the cream, for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the refrigerator for 12 hours and then reheat it on the stovetop over medium heat until hot. Once heated through, add the cream and bring to a simmer before serving.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (6 servings)
- Serving size: about 1-1/2 cups
- Calories: 454
- Fat: 24 g
- Saturated fat: 14 g
- Carbohydrates: 49 g
- Sugar: 10 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 12 g
- Sodium: 828 mg
- Cholesterol: 78 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Perfect – made it as an entre for a Turkey dinner at our Canadian Thanksgiving.
I withdraw my previous comment. Once the soup cooled a little, it was the perfect consistency. I topped with a little crumbled sweet Italian chicken and kale sausage and served with yeast rolls. Delicious!
The flavor of this soup is wonderful! I made it for thanksgiving last year. Everyone agreed the flavor was delicious. We also all agreed we would like it more if it wasn’t puréed. I think next time I make this, I’ll leave some chunks of both potatoes and leeks and will love it all the more.
Other than using salted butter because I didn’t have unsalted on hand, I followed this recipe exactly as written, and boy, it did not disappoint! So rich and full of flavor! We have a bunch more leeks to pull yet and know exactly what I’ll be doing with them! Thank you so much!
This soup is phenomenal! I used baby potatoes, skins on. Add crusty bread and a green salad and it’s hard to quit. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Jenn, my husband and I just made this soup and we can’t stop talking about it. So delicious and creamy. He’s actually laughing while he’s washing the dishes, thinking about how good it was. We have more than half left over for tomorrow as well. We were thinking that the next time we could pack some soup in 2-serving sizes and seal them in our vacuum chamber sealer. Would we have to leave out the cream? Thanks so much, love your recipes.
Hi Valerie, I’m glad this was such a hit! It would be fine for you to freeze it (and I’d wait until you reheat the soup to add the cream).
I’m excited to make this tonight and will come back with a review of how it turns out. But I was wondering, do you have advice for cooking this slower allowing time for the flavors to really come out? Maybe even a slow cooker version? I don’t want to ruin it by attempting, just curious about your thoughts! Thanks!
Hi Alex, I’m obviously weighing in too late to help but I don’t think that cooking the soup for longer would really change the flavor. I do find that this is even better the second day so if you make it again, you may want to try making it a day ahead of time.
This is the best ever leek and potato soup I have ever had. I made it today, and the only tiny adjustment I made was to add double the quantity of thyme because it is one of my favourite “French” herbs and added 1 litre of chicken stock instead of 1 litre and 750ml – otherwise the soup would have been too watery, but otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. I garnished with crispy fried bacon bits together with the chives. It was absolutely delicious!! A winner for sure!
I am a clean eater so used EVOO instead of butter and 2 cups of cashew cream subbed for the real stuff. In the pot now, looks good and should taste good also. I can not help myself – I used salt, basil, and parsley as my spices and will hit it with parm when served. Thanks for the no bacon version.
This article is interesting. It is ridiculous though because nowhere are the exact ingredients and volumes listed. This is an embarrassing post.
Hi Joe, It sounds like you are just looking at the portion of the page that has the pictures with some instructions underneath. If you scroll down a bit to under the pictures, you’ll find the full recipe. Alternatively, at the very top of the page, to the right of the recipe name, you’ll see an orange/red button that says Jump to Recipe – if you click on that, it will take you directly to the recipe. Hope that clarifies!
You are too nice. People are so %&*# sometimes.
This is an amazing soup! Flavours meld to perfection.
Thank you for putting yourself and your recipes out there.
💗
So delicious!