Autumn is upon us in the Pacific Northwest. The long, warm days of August are behind us. Now we get alternating days that are clear, warm in the afternoon and chilly in the morning and days that are gray, rainy, and cold. Which means it’s time to start making soups on Sunday to eat throughout the week. One of my favorites is a Potato Leek Soup. It’s traditionally French and traditionally an Autumn dish.

When I’m doing a lot in the kitchen, I get help from our Lab, Dunkin. He enjoys the warmth of the stove and the time with his human. The only challenge is not tripping over him, since he feels it’s necessary to lay right in the middle of everything.

I’ve been making Potato Leek Soup for years. Probably 30 years now. I don’t particularly remember where I got the first recipe from. Likely it was either Julee Rosso’s “The New Basics Cookbook” or Julia Child’s “Mastering The Art Of French Cooking“. These two cookbooks should be on the shelf of all serious home cooks.

Over the years, I’ve adjusted this recipe some and I no longer need to open a cookbook for it. I do have the recipe jotted down from about 15 years ago when someone asked me for it. That’s when it became a true recipe, instead of me cooking with “some of this and some of that”. I hope you take this recipe, make it your own, and then someone else asks you to write it down for them.

Cooking Potato Leek Soup In Pictures

Potato Leek Soup – Vegan Friendly

This soup is very easy to make vegan and/or vegetarian friendly. There are some basic substitutions and one omission from my recipe. Obviously, take out the bacon. In place of the bacon fat (and butter for vegans), substitute a vegan butter like Earth Balance. Replace the chicken stock with a vegetable stock. and Replace the heavy cream with coconut cream. I’ll put the substitutions/omissions in parentheses in the recipe.

Potato Leek Soup

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Recipe by Eric Course: Soups, Stews, ChilisCuisine: FranceDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

410

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

Potato Leek Soup is one of the basics of French cooking. It’s great by itself, but can be used as the foundation for many other dishes. Serve it warm with some sourdough bread. Or serve it cold and it is Vichyssoise or Potage Parmentier.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs potatoes – Yukon gold is best, but really any potato works well

• 3 slices thick cut bacon (replace with 2 tbsp vegan butter) – diced into 1/4″ chunks

• 4 tbsp butter (replace with 4 tbsp vegan butter)

• 3 large leeks – remove root end and green leaves, rinse well, roughly chopped

• 6 cups chicken stock (replace with vegetable stock)

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream (coconut cream)

• 2 medium carrots – peeled and chopped

• 3 cloves garlic – crushed or minced

• 3 bay leaves

• 2 sprigs fresh thyme – tied inside cheese cloth to make it easier to remove (optional)

• 1 tsp ground black pepper

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Method

• Saute bacon in your soup pot over medium low heat until crispy and the fat is well rendered (melt vegan butter)
• Reserve bacon pieces, leave bacon fat in soup pot
• Add butter, leeks, carrots to soup pot and cook until leeks are nicely wilted, about 5 minutes (vegan butter)
• Add garlic and pepper to soup pot, stir into leeks, cook until aromatic, about 1 minute
• Add stock, potatoes, thyme, bay leaves, salt to pot. Bring to a boil
• Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender to a fork, about 15 minutes
• Using an immersion blender or regular blender, puree the soup until mostly smooth. In a regular blender, you will need to work with portions of the soup at a time. If using the immersion blender, just do it right in the soup pot. Don’t blend until completely smooth, you want small pieces of bacon and carrot for a splash of color and an interesting add to the mouth feel of the soup.
• Set heat to low, stir in the cream.
• If the soup seems too thick, you can thin with a bit of water. If it seems to thin, add another 1/4 cup of cream and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken.
• Heat the soup over low heat until it is heated through.
• Serve – A serving is about 1.5 cups for a bowl/main dish.