Potato Leek Soup

Dec 25 2025

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Separate all of the leek leaves and clean thoroughly.
  2. Dice leek leaves, celery, and green onion small, like you would an onion.
  3. Heat a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot on the stove on medium high heat. Add butter.
  4. Sauté leeks, celery, and green onion in butter for 4-5 minutes until wilted and soft.
  5. Add potato starch to the veggies and sauté for another minute until the starch dissolves into the fat.
  6. Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer.
  7. Peel and cube carrots and potatoes. 1⁄2" cubes for the potatoes, small discs for the carrots. If the ends of the carrots are really large you can cut them in half and make half or quarter circles.
  8. Once the broth is at a simmer, add potatoes and carrots. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
  9. Dice bacon into 1⁄2" strips
  10. While the soup is cooking, cook bacon strips in batches on medium high heat in a separate pan. Transfer to a plate with several paper towels when each batch is done.
  11. When the soup is done, add the crispy bacon.
  12. Taste and add salt/pepper as needed (Do not skip this step. Most foods need some salt added to bring out flavor)

Science

I didn’t have a recipe when making this soup, I just put it together without. But there was reasons for certain things based on science.

Michelle can’t have some fodmaps which primarily consist of onions and garlic. Onion is the basis for many dishes, especially soups. The umami flavor from onions can be at least partially achieved with leeks, hence their inclusion in replacement of onion. I like to cut them up small as they will express more flavor with a larger cut surface area, and they’re more in the background rather than in your face like often is done with larger pieces.

I find that soups like this seem heartier when you have a thicker broth. The primary way that I like to thicken a broth is with a flour and butter roux. However, Deanna is not tolerant of gluten. Instead, corn starch or potato starch can be used as a thickener (also xantham gum, but use very small amounts of that). Since this is a potato soup, potato starch works well.

Potatoes come in 2 main varieties: boiling potatoes and baking potatoes. Russets will be your main baking potato and they’re mainly used in either baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, or fried potatoes like hashbrowns or latkas. They have lot of starch in them and can taste mealy. Boiling potatoes are also known as waxy potatoes. Red potatoes are the furthest on this spectrum. I like them for country potatoes with breakfast or parsley potatoes. Gold/yellow/white potatoes are sort of a hybrid. Not as waxy as a red, but way more so than a russet. A russet won’t hold up in water (just falls apart), so they’re terrible in soup. I like yellow potatoes for soup.

I like to bring the broth to a simmer before adding the carrots and potatoes because it makes the timing easier. 15 minutes for smaller cubes should be what you need.

Bacon adds both more umami and salt. I would recommend waiting until the bacon is added, then take a tiny tester bowl of the soup and try it, then add salt as needed. You might need less salt than another soup due to the bacon adding its own salt.