Warm up on a cold day with this easy potato soup! Thick, creamy, and loaded with toppings like green onions and cheese, it's the ultimate comfort food.
This potato soup recipe is the ultimate comfort food for a cold day! It’s like a loaded baked potato in soup form—the thick, creamy, savory soup is piled high with toppings like sour cream, shredded cheese, and green onions or chives. Jack loves it so much that he can polish off half the pot in a single night.
Luckily, this potato soup comes together in one pot with simple ingredients, so it’ll be easy to keep in our rotation this winter.
It’s one of those recipes that’s so much more than the sum of its parts. You start with humble veggies like celery and potatoes and end up with a deeply flavorful meal. Smoked paprika adds rich, smoky flavor (no bacon here!), and thyme brings in fresh, earthy notes. We’ll be making it all winter long. I hope you love it too!
Best Potatoes for Soup
I think Yukon Gold and yellow potatoes are the best potatoes for soup. They hold their shape when cooked, and they have an amazing creamy texture when blended. This soup is partially blended, so you get to enjoy them both ways! They have a nice buttery flavor too.
I wouldn’t use russet potatoes here, as they fall apart as they cook.
How to Make Potato Soup
You can find the complete potato soup recipe with measurements at the bottom of this post. For now, here’s a quick overview of how it goes:
Start by prepping the veggies. Cut the potatoes into roughly 3/4-inch chunks. Do your best to cut the pieces to a similar size so that they cook evenly. Chop the onion, carrot, and celery.
Then, sauté the onion and celery until softened.
Make a roux by adding flour to the pot and stirring until it coats the veggies. While stirring, gradually pour in the broth.
Next, simmer the soup. Add the potatoes, carrots, garlic, thyme, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 25 to 30 minutes.
When the potatoes are tender, partially blend the soup. You can do this right in the pot with an immersion blender, adding water as needed if the soup is too thick. Another option is to transfer half the soup to an upright blender and blend until smooth, then stir it back into the pot.
- Tip: If you’re using an upright blender, let the soup cool slightly before blending.
Finally, add the cream and simmer for another 5 minutes. If desired, add a squeeze of lemon juice for a brighter flavor. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Don’t want to use cream? Half-and-half or milk (any kind) works too! These options will be thinner than cream, so I’d start with just 2/3 cup and add more as needed to reach your desired consistency.
Loaded Potato Soup Toppings
Half the fun of this easy potato soup is loading up your bowl like a baked potato! Don’t hold back on the toppings. Here are some of our favorites:
- A dollop of sour cream, vegan sour cream, or plain Greek yogurt
- Thinly sliced green onions or chives
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper
A few homemade croutons are great too!
Round out the meal with crusty bread and/or a simple green salad.
How to Store
Leftover potato soup keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
It will thicken in the fridge, so don’t hesitate to thin it with water when you reheat. It reheats nicely in the microwave or over low heat on the stovetop.
Can you freeze potato soup?
I don’t recommend freezing this soup. It can become grainy when it thaws.
More Comforting Soup Recipes
If you love this creamy potato soup, try one of these cozy soup recipes next:
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Creamy Gnocchi Soup
- Corn Chowder
- Or any of these 35 Best Soup Recipes!
Creamy Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1 celery rib, chopped
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes or yellow potatoes, chopped
- 1 medium carrot, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 3 fresh thyme sprigs, bundled
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, optional
Topping Options
- Chopped fresh chives or green onions
- Grated cheddar cheese
- Sour cream
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 8 minutes, or until softened. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the flour is lightly golden. While stirring, slowly pour in the broth.
- Add the potatoes, carrots, garlic, thyme, salt, smoked paprika, and several grinds of pepper. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
- Remove the thyme bundle and use an immersion blender to blend the soup until it is mostly smooth but still has some larger potato chunks. If the soup is too thick to blend, add water, ¼ cup at a time, as needed to reach your desired consistency. Alternatively, allow the soup to cool slightly and transfer half to an upright blender. Blend until smooth, then return to the pot with the remaining chunky soup and stir to combine.
- Add the cream and gently simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, if using.
- Season to taste and serve with desired toppings.
Notes
Do the potatoes need to be peeled? I’ve made it with peeled potatoes (and we LOVE it), but am wondering if it makes a difference if the skins are left on.
Hi Erika, I don’t peel mine.
When I saw this recipe in one of L&L’s newsletters, I decided to give it a go. Living in Washington about this time, we experience really cold weather, and a bowl of this creamy, comforting, and warm soup is the perfect week-night dinner. I have made two pots of it, one following the recipe and one vegan with cashew cream instead of heaving whipping cream, and both are delicious! 😋
I’m so glad you loved it both ways!
More experiments needed. 🙂 Great recipe for the holiday wind-down. Thank you and happy new year!
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Second time making this soup. So good.
The 1st time I used soy milk. Today I used oat milk which I think was a richer taste.
Thanks so much for the wonderful recipes.
Best of wishes and Happy Healthy New Year!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
The Potato Soup has quickly become a household favorite.
I’m glad to hear that!
Absolutely delicious! Made it for a cozy Christmas dinner
I’m so glad you loved it!
This Creamy Potato Soup became our very favorite potato soup instantly. It is so good and full of flavor plus easy to make. I had some carrots that needed to be used up so I was very excited to see that this was one of the ingredients. I added a little bit more of the smoked paprika than the recipe calls for because we love the flavor of paprika. I skipped the onions since my husband does not care for onions at all and I even without that, the soup is full of flavor. The soup is of course really good reheated as well.
Hi Annika, I’m so glad you both loved it!
Really tasty. I ate it for lunch for several days after and it tasted even better!
I’m so happy to hear!
So creamy and delicious! Loved making with my sisters!
I’m so glad you all loved it!
Our family’s traditional Christmas Eve dinner is potato soup under the tree. We loved this recipe. I made it ahead except for the cream. This year we added crispy potato crowns to our topping bar. We loved it!
Aw, I’m so glad this one made it to the tradition!
So Delicious! Very Easy to Make! I ended up adding some freezer corn and chives and it really added an extra element to the soup. But the soup was delicious as written. I will make it again!
I made this for a potluck over the weekend! So good!!! Definitely loaded baked potato vibes.
I’m so glad you loved it!
So good and the fam loved it!
Amazing soup!!! I made the dairy free version and it tastes so delish! I didn’t change a thing and it was such an easy dinner to make quickly. I am already planning on making it again when we get snow!
This soup is delicious! I made it exactly as written and topped it with green onion and a little tofutti sour cream. Will definitely make it again. Thank you for the recipe.
I’m so glad you loved it!
Perfect for a cold winter day!
This soup was so delicious. My whole family loved it! We paired it with homemade sourdough bread and herbed butter.
I’m so happy to hear!
Very good recipe! Versatile for adding meat toppings for one and not the other.
This was so delicious! Loved how creamy it was but still chunky! Wonderful touch with the lemon juice and added green onion, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. Yummy, cozy, hearty, and quick!
Cozy and delicious.