Potato Carrot Leek Soup (quick & hearty)

This potato carrot leek soup is a quick, hearty, satisfying soup that is full of flavor. Easy to put together and so adaptable.

This soup is good as a chunky soup or a blended soup - or somewhere in between.

This recipe uses dill, as I love dill in my potato soups. However, if you're not a fan of dill, you can substitute your favorite herb such as oregano, marjoram, or thyme.

I also love the way the carrots and the paprika make the soup a lovely orange tint.

What You'll Need

Oil and butter

5 large potatoes

3 large carrots

2 leeks

paprika

dill weed, dry or fresh

salt and black pepper

4 cups chicken, beef, or vegetable broth

How to Make

Preheat a large Dutch oven or heavy pot on medium heat. Add oil and butter. Stir in leeks and cook 5 minutes or until softened and starting to brown.

Add broth, potatoes, carrots, dill, paprika, salt, and black pepper. Stir together. Bring to a boil on higher heat.

Turn heat down to low-medium, cover, and cook about 30 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are soft. Taste to see if more salt is needed. Turn heat to low. Add cream.

Use immersion blender to blend part or all of the vegetables if desired. We like a partial blend with about half the veggies blended smooth and half of them still chunky.

(Note that you can also use a regular blender if you don't have an immersion blender.)

Serve right away with your choice of bread and salad if desired. This soup is also delicious with a bit of cheese and/or crumbled cooked bacon on top.

Tips & FAQs

Be sure to thoroughly wash your leeks before chopping, as some of the dirt and sand can sneak into the inner parts.

I like to turn the water on to where it will seep inside the layers to help flush the dirt out.

I don't use the green parts of the leeks, but I do go just barely into the green. It gets tougher the greener it is.

I also like to slice the leek in about quarter-inch pieces and then cut them again cross wise in half.

This creates lots of U-shaped pieces instead of circles. You could also chop the leek pieces even smaller if you wish.

For the potatoes, just about any variety will do here. I used russet potatoes. I like to peel first, then rinse well, then chop.

The whole process of preparing the potatoes should take about 5-10 minutes.

I like to use butter and oil both in this recipe. The purpose of the butter is flavor, but butter is more prone to scorching due to the lower smoke point (meaning it will smoke and scorch more quickly).

Using half oil and half butter helps prevent the scorching while still adding some nice butter flavor.

If you like a chunky soup, it's perfectly fine to not blend the soup at all. It is still delicious whether you leave chunky, blend partially, or blend until smooth.

The flavors of this potato leek and carrot soup are just awesome no matter how chunky or smooth you like it!

Recipe

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