Nature’s beautiful symmetric designs in sliced leeks
Simple and delicious, this is a classic winter soup that is easy and quick to prepare – it just involves a little prep time to cut the veggies and then time to let them soften before you blend it up into a creamy and flavourful soup. The thyme gives it the classic savoury flavour that you’re looking for. I mostly use dried thyme since I usually make this soup in the winter and many herbs don’t make it through our snow-packed, chilly winters. But if you live in a milder climate and have fresh thyme on hand, that is always the way to go.
We like to serve this creamy comfort soup with a slice of gluten-free toast for a satisfying meal. Check out our ‘Favourite gluten-free foods‘ post for a list of gluten-free breads we like. FYI: if you’re new to gluten-free breads, many homemade breads are delicious when eaten fresh. But the store-bought breads are best toasted, and are found in the freezer section of the ‘health food/organic’ section of grocery and health food stores.
- 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
- 6-8 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1" cubes
- 2 large leeks, sliced into rounds
- 6 cups veggie stock or 6 cups water + 1 veggie bouillon cube
- 2 tsp dried thyme, or 1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
- ½ tsp dried dill, or 1 tsp chopped fresh dill (optional)
- 1-2 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp black pepper, and more to taste
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add leeks and potatoes, and sauté for about 5 mins, stirring constantly.
- Add in thyme, salt, & pepper, and dill if using. Saute for another 5-10 minutes.
- Add veggie stock and bring soup to a near boil. Reduce to low heat, cover pot, and simmer for about 45 minutes.
- At the end of simmering, use a stainless steel immersion blender to puree of the soup in the pot until you reach the desired level of smoothness.
- Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
- Garnish with fresh parsley or pumpkin seeds, and serve along side your favourite gluten-free toast.
This is a delicious recipe. Even my 12 year old son liked it.
That’s great! Our 2 year old loves this soup too. It’s a great recipe that the whole family can enjoy 🙂
Recipe above not not include carrots in the ingredients. How much should be added?
Hi Mary Ann,
Yes, I removed carrots from the recipe as I found myself not adding them in anymore. If you would like to add carrots, add 2 (medium sized) chopped carrots in when you sautée the potatoes and leeks.
Thanks!
This soup is good, but it tasted more like carrot soup than potato leek soup. Next time I will use fewer carrots.
Thanks for your comment. And I agree with you – it needs less carrots. I must have been using small carrots when I wrote up the recipe! I have since changed the recipe to 2 carrots, which I think works much better. Thanks again!
So delicious! Thanks for sharing
Made this tonight. Even my 5 year old ate and loved it. Thanks for sharing!
Great! Our kids love it too
SO GOOD!
Used left-over baked potatoes and threw in some fresh chopped parsley.
Absolutely delicious! Thank you!!
What if you don’t have an immersion blender? Can you let cool slightly and transfer to a traditional blender?
Yes, I would recommend cooling it near completely before transferring the soup to a blender, especially if you’re blender container is made of plastic – as I’m sure you’ve heard how plastics & heat don’t mix. Even though the blender container may be BPA free, there are other BP’s out there. But if it is a glass blender container, you should only need to cool is part way in order to blend safely.
I have made several vegan leek soups and they always lack something. This was a simple and delicious soup. I think the carrots gave it a better depth of flavour and pulled it away from being too savoury. Even the neighbour child loved tonight’s family meal. I’ll be passing it on. Thank you!
This is a nice basic recipe thats easy to be creative with. I made a double recipe and added a 1/2 TBS of minced fresh ginger and a clove of garlic while sauteeing the veggies. After cooking I added a few handfulls of fresh baby spinach then hit it with the immersion blender. It became a beautiful green color and at the same time my 87 year old Mom who loved it, had the benefit of barely cooked spinach without much effort on her part. I added some carrots and potatoes in a very small dice that I cooked separately to give it some texture. Thanks so much for posting this recipe.
Wonder how this would be if the leeks were added after the immersion blending to give it a little contrastive color and a bit of standout flavor. Anybody tried it like that?
I bet that would work really nicely, especially in giving some texture to an otherwise puréed soup. Give it a try & let us know!
We loved this recipe. I added the fresh parsley! Love it! I put bean sprouts in my bowl! delicious! I will add this recipe to my favourite basic recipes and use it often! thx
Great to hear! Mmm fresh parsley would be a great addition. And bean sprouts would add a nice crunchy texture – good thinking!
Well isn’t this a nice surprise – here I am in Vancouver with a buncha leeks and potatoes. I search dairy free leek and potato and who comes up first on google? Fellow classmates! Excited to make this up. Hope you folks are doing exceptionally well this late winter season 🙂
Going to make this for dinner.. Doesn’t mention what to do with the dill!
this soup is sooo yummy! I didn’t have any thyme or dill to hand so I added onions and garlic for some extra flavour 🙂
Onions + garlic = a tasty way to flavour soup AND support your immune system!
hi, i made the soup last night and it was amazing. only one suggestion: if you are using veggie stock, it tends to have a lot of salt in it so don’t add salt until after the soup is ready. i had to add more potatoes in order for them to soak up the additional salt. enjoy!
That’s a good point! We’ll adjust the recipe to make that clear. Thank you!
I’m making this for the second time tonight. Great recipe! Sautéing isn’t necessary though. I skipped that step and it turned out fabulous still.
Great! We love hearing how the recipes turned out for people. This would be great for retaining the flavours & textures of the veggies.
Forgot to mention that this is so much better with about a full bulb of garlic.
Wow – all that garlic will surely cure what ails you!
i’m about to make this and I’m not sure when to at the Dill… It’s in the list of ingredients but not in the preparation.
Thank you for bringing that to our attention. I updated the recipe with dill included.
Making a double batch of this right now!
Great! We hope you enjoy!
I just made this soup today. I have to admit that it looks good, but I didn’t like the flavour. I think it lacks something. I modified the recipe a little bit. I added onions, garlic, celery and fresh parsley and a little more thyme. I felt like it needs something else.
I agree that sometimes I make this soup & it needs additional seasoning. I think it has to do with the type of potatoes used. We tend not to add “enough” onions and garlic because our kids don’t really enjoy those flavours, but it sounds like you added some really nice herbs & flavours to make a delicious soup!
Just made this, really yummy! I added the juice of a large lemon, and a bit more fresh sage than the recipe calls for. Delicious. Thanks!
Blending potatoes often turns them into glue – I am surprised no one else has had this problem?
You’re right – at certain times of the year (in the fall especially), some varieties are gluey/sticky when you boil them. I remember my grandmother saying that she didn’t like making potato salad with some fall potatoes, for this reason.
You can ask your farmer or grocery store clerk if the potatoes you’re buying are ok when boiled (I think they are better for roasting if they are the gluey variety of potatoes). This can help avoid the gluey texture in your soup. However, we just add more water when this happens and don’t really mind the thickness.
Thanks for bringing this up, as I’m sure that other people have had this issue!
I loved this recipe! I did add bay leaves because I like the flavour in soups, but it was amazing.
Awesome! I agree with you about the bay leaves. Maybe I’ll have to add that to the recipe!
Did anybody try to add coconut milk? To make it a bit more creamier? Any other suggestions?
Hi Tanya, adding some of the coconut water should help thin it out a little. As well, when you are mixing the coconut cream & coconut water together, the heat created by mixing should help make the yogurt more smooth & creamy.
A couple of people mentioned carrots, but I don’t see them in the list of ingredients?
Hi Ava,
Yes, I removed them from the recipe, because I found myself not adding them anymore. However if you want to add carrots to the recipe, add 2 (medium-sized) chopped carrots in with the potatoes and leeks.
Thanks!
I’ve been making this soup as our day after Thanksgiving recipe for years, but went to share this recipe with a friend and noticed the carrots are now MIA from the recipe. Was that intentional?
Hi Laura,
I’m so glad that you have enjoyed this recipe!
A while ago, I noticed that I mentioned carrots in the instructions but forgot them in the ingredient list, and lately we have been making the soup without carrots so I decided to take them off the recipe/instructions. However, if you have been adding in carrots, please feel free to do so! Add 2 medium-sized chopped carrots in when you sautee the chopped potatoes and leeks. Thanks!