Inspired by Julia Child's creamy potato leek soup, this classic French soup is comforting and easy to make with just a handful of ingredients! The easy potato leek soup features sautéed leeks, creamy potatoes and a touch of cream that is blended until velvety smooth.
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About This Recipe
If you are looking to dip into the world of French cooking and find that making a coq au vin or Julia Child's cheese souffle is too tedious, try this easy and creamy potato leek soup!
The classic French soup is inspired by Julia Child's potato leek soup also called, vichyssoise and is made with simple ingredients and has minimal cooking steps.
As a summertime soup, serve Julia Child's Creamy Potato Leek Soup chilled.
🥣 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Simple ingredients! All of the flavors in this creamy potato leek soup come from the simplest of ingredients including potatoes, leeks and vegetable stock.
- Versatile! Potato leek soup is one of the most versatile recipes. Don't have cream? Omit it or substitute milk or just leave it out altogether!
- Freezes well! Make a double batch of the potato leek soup and store half of it in the freezer. Pour it into a resealable bag, lay flat and freeze.
- Perfect weeknight recipe! The entire recipe can be made in under 40 minutes! And if you have the prep done, it can be done even faster
📋 Ingredients
- Potatoes: Yukon gold potatoes are used in the recipe because they blend well into a creamy consistency and won't get "gummy". For more texture, keep the peels on but for an ultra creamy potato soup, take the time to peel the potatoes.
- Leeks: Use only the light green and white parts of the leek, the dark greens are too thick and fibrous to cook down. You can also slice, clean and freeze prepped leeks. And may I suggest saving some to make a potato leek tart!
- Vegetable Stock: Use a flavorful vegetable stock or even chicken stock, since there are minimal ingredients in the soup. I like using a stock base.
- Butter and Oil: Both help saute the leeks and give the soup great flavor.
- Heavy Cream: You'll only need a splash of cream to add creaminess to the potato soup. If cream isn't available, use milk, non-dairy milk such as oat milk or omit the cream altogether.
- Herbs: Fresh thyme adds a lovely herby aroma to the soup. if thyme isn't available, use finely minced chives or parsley to garnish.
See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
🥔 Substitutions and Variations
- For more texture, leave the peel on the potatoes.
- For a rustic potato leek soup, don't blend the soup and leave it thick and chunky. Or blend some of the soup to thicken the base.
- For a vegan potato leek soup, add a splash of oat milk or omit the milk all together. As long as it's blended well, the soup will be thick and creamy.
- Garnish the soup with other herbs such as chives or parsley.
- Add different toppings such as smoked salt, crispy prosciutto or crispy bacon.
- Serve it chilled! Traditional vichyssoise is served chilled and is so refreshing on a warm day.
⏲️ Instructions
Step 1: Melt butter and olive oil over medium heat and add leeks. Saute the leeks until softened but not browned.
Step 2: Add the cubed potatoes and season with salt and pepper.
Step 3: Pour enough vegetable stock to completely cover the potatoes and leeks and bring up to a strong simmer.
Step 4: Cook the potato leek soup until the potatoes are soft and you can easily pierce a fork through a potato.
Step 5: Blend the soup using an immersion blender or high powered blender until incredibly smooth.
Step 5 (Alternate Option): If using a high powered blender, don't fill the soup all the way to the top if it's hot. Start on low speed and gradually go faster until the soup is very smooth.
Step 6: Pour in heavy cream or milk and stir to combine.
Step 7: Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with chopped thyme, ground black pepper and drizzle of olive oil.
📍 Recipe Tips
- Use only the light green and white parts of the leek. The very dark green are too fibrous and won't blend well. Save those to make a homemade stock!
- Add enough stock not completely cover the vegetables. If there's not enough liquid, it could make the soup gummy.
- Saute the leeks before adding the other ingredients to soften and sweeten them.
- Blend the soup while it's still warm so it blends easily and becomes creamy.
- Leeks freeze very well! Slice the leeks thin, wash and dry well and then store in resealable plastic bag.
Recipe FAQs
Leeks and potato have great flavor already but if you want to add even more flavor, you can saute some garlic with the leeks, add smoked salt and top the potato leek soup with crumbled bacon or prosciutto.
Make sure the potatoes are completely cooked through and easily break apart with a fork. And for an ultra smooth and creamy potato soup, use a high powered blender to get the soup as smooth as possible.
Add finely minced chives or green onions to punch up the savory onion flavor as well as fresh thyme and finely chopped fresh parsley.
Serve the soup alongside Julia Child's salad nicoise or a savory puff pastry tart with chard.
More Soup Recipes to Try
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Julia Child's Creamy Potato Leek Soup
LittleFerraroKitchen.com
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil + more for garnish
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
- 2-3 medium leeks cut in half, sliced and cleaned well
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper + more for garnish
- 5 cups vegetable stock
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Fresh thyme leaves removed from stem, for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a medium pot to medium heat and add butter and olive oil. Once melted add the leeks and saute for 5-7 minutes until softened but not caramelized.
- Add the cubed potatoes and season with salt and pepper.
- Add enough stock to completely cover the vegetables. Cover with the lid, leaving a small opening and bring to a strong simmer.
- Cook the potato leek soup until the potatoes are incredibly tender, about 35 minutes.
- Once done, turn off the heat and use an immersion blender or high powdered blender to blend the soup until incredibly smooth.
- Pour in the heavy cream and stir to mix in.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with fresh thyme, a drizzle of olive oil and additional grating of black pepper and salt.
Video
Notes
- Use only the light green and white parts of the leek. The very dark green are too fibrous and won't blend well. Save those to make a homemade stock!
- Add enough stock not completely cover the vegetables. If theres not enough liquid, it could make the soup gummy.
- Saute the leeks before adding the other ingredients to sweeten them.
- Blend the soup while it's still warm so it blends easily and becomes creamy.
- Leeks freeze very well! Slice the leeks thin, wash and dry well then store in resealable plastic bag.
Clare says
My family and I loved this recipe! I will be making this soup again and again! Thank you!
Samantha Ferraro says
Wonderful Clare. HAve a great Holiday, Samantha