My favorite potato soup recipe is pure comfort food, but not so rich that you can’t enjoy it regularly. I also love that you have two options for serving this soup. You can keep it on the brothy side (like our photos) or blend it for a thick, creamy potato soup. For more potato soup recipes, see our sausage and potato soup or this potato and leek soup.
Key Ingredients
Potatoes: You can use any potato in our recipe, but I highly recommend Yukon Gold potatoes. There’s no need to peel them, and when cooked, they are buttery and almost melt in your mouth. Veggies: This is potato soup, but we love adding a few cups of extra veggies. Onions are a must, carrots add color and some sweetness, and chopped celery adds flavor and texture. Garlic and rosemary: Make this the tastiest potato soup I’ve made. I’ve found some potato soup recipes too rich or lacking in flavor, but that’s not a problem with this easy potato soup. I love rosemary, garlic, and potato together. Butter and flour: The combination of butter and flour thickens our soup. Unsalted butter or salted butter works just fine for this recipe. You will need to season with salt to taste. I’ve added tips for omitting the flour in the recipe below for gluten-free potato soup. Stock or broth: For the best potato soup, use good-quality chicken stock from the store or homemade. When reaching for store-bought broth, we go for low sodium. We also look for a store-bought broth that’s darker in color (usually means more flavor), and since it usually has more of a backbone, we like to buy boxed bone broth (we use homemade bone broth sometimes, too). Cream: We add a little cream to this soup. The chicken stock adds flavor, and the cream makes the broth creamy and more luxurious. You can also try half-and-half, sour cream, or plain yogurt. Cheese: This is optional, but if you have some on hand, it adds a lovely richness to the soup. Use sharp cheddar for cheesy potato soup that rivals cheesy baked potatoes. We also love stirring in Gruyère or parmesan.
How to Make Potato Soup
To make homemade potato soup, you’ll cook vegetables with garlic and rosemary in butter. The kitchen will smell incredible, and you’ll be well on your way to some of the best potato soup you’ve ever made. So that our soup thickens nicely, you’ll stir in some flour and cook until toasty. The mixture of butter and flour helps thicken the soup. Then, it’s time to add the broth and potatoes and simmer until tender, which takes about 20 minutes. Finish by stirring in cream and some cheese if you plan to add it. You can serve the brothy soup or blend some to thicken it even more. I like to blend a portion of the soup (about 2 cups). Then, I add the blended mixture back into the soup.
Storing Potato Soup
Homemade potato soup lasts stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. You can also freeze potato soup for up to 3 months. Thaw the soup overnight in the refrigerator before reheating. When you reheat potato soup, it might look a bit separated. Don’t worry. Just use a whisk to blend it back together.
What to Serve with Potato Soup
I love serving this potato soup with bread for dipping. A few favorites from the blog are this homemade focaccia bread, this roasted garlic bread, and our beer bread! Consider a light salad on the side to balance the soup’s richness. I love this strawberry balsamic salad or this easy chopped salad. As for topping potato soup, I love scattering over fresh herbs (especially chives), but you can add more cheese, cooked bacon, sour cream, or crispy fried shallots. 1 medium onion, chopped, 2 cups 2 medium carrots, chopped, 1 cup 2 stalks celery, chopped, 1 cup 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 3 to 4 cloves 3 tablespoons butter or olive oil 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1/4 teaspoon dried 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 4 cups chicken stock or vegetable broth 1 bay leaf Salt and fresh ground black pepper 1/4 cup cream, half and half, sour cream, or plain yogurt 1 cup (2 ounces) shredded cheese, optional For serving (optional): Chives or scallions, sour cream, crumbled cooked bacon, fried shallots, hot sauce 2Stir in the garlic, rosemary, red pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and then cook, stirring everything around the pot, for 30 seconds. 3Scatter the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring, until it looks medium blonde in color, about 1 minute. It will smell toasty, like browned butter. 4Slowly whisk in 2 cups of the stock, ensuring no lumps of flour remain. It will be thick. 5Pour in the remaining stock and whisk until blended. Increase the heat to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. 6Add the potatoes and bay leaf, then cook, partially covered, until the potatoes are fork-tender, about 20 minutes. 7Turn the heat down to low, remove the bay leaf, and stir in the cream and cheese. 8Taste for seasoning, then adjust with more salt and pepper as needed. 9Serve with fresh herbs on top. For a thick and blended soup, use a potato masher to mash or an immersion blender to blend about half of the potatoes, and then stir back into the soup.
