Potato Leek Soup
A silky, deeply comforting soup built on tender potatoes and sweet, slow-cooked leeks — part pureed smooth, part left chunky, then finished with a generous swirl of cream.
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 medium russet potatoes (about 2 1/4 lb.), peeled and chopped
- 3 leeks, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
- 3 celery stalks, chopped, plus yellow leaves for garnish (optional)
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste
- 1 cup heavy cream, plus more for drizzling
- Hot sauce and fried onions, for serving (optional)
- Set a Dutch oven over medium heat and warm the olive oil with the butter until the butter has fully melted. Add the chopped potatoes, sliced leeks, and celery, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes, until the leeks turn soft and translucent — this slow sweat is what builds the soup's sweetness, so don't rush it. Stir in the garlic during the final 30 seconds, just until it turns fragrant; garlic burns quickly, so keep it moving in the pot.
- Pour in the chicken broth and drop in the thyme sprigs, then stir in the salt and pepper. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring everything to a simmer, then dial back to medium-low and let it cook uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes, until a fork slides easily through the potatoes. Keeping the lid off helps the broth reduce slightly and concentrate in flavor as the potatoes finish cooking.
- Fish out the thyme sprigs and discard them. Ladle roughly 4 cups of the soup into a blender — venting the lid or draping a folded kitchen towel over the opening instead of sealing it fully, since hot liquid expands and can force the lid off — and puree until silky, about 30 seconds. Return the pureed soup to the pot with the remaining chunky portion, stir in the heavy cream, and cook over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the soup thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon.
- Taste the soup and adjust with additional salt and pepper as needed. Ladle into bowls and finish each with a scatter of reserved celery leaves, a dash of hot sauce, a handful of crispy fried onions, and one more drizzle of cream if you're feeling generous.
Chef's Note: The character of this soup comes down to restraint in two places — how gently the leeks are cooked at the start, and how much of the soup actually gets pureed. Sweating the leeks low and slow coaxes out their natural sweetness without letting them brown, and pureeing only part of the batch keeps some real potato texture in every spoonful instead of a uniform, one-note puree.
This soup keeps beautifully, and honestly tastes even better the next day once the flavors have had time to settle — just reheat gently over low heat, since cream-based soups can separate if boiled too hard. If you want to build in some crunch, save a few croutons or extra fried onions to add right before serving rather than stirring them in, so they stay crisp against the silky base.
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