I can’t wait to share my favorite vegan potato soup recipe. It’s creamy, loaded with robust flavor and oh so comforting. No dairy, no problem.
This Autumn I’m sharing my family’s fav vegan potato soup recipe. It’s super creamy and actually filling. Potato soup is the ultimate comfort food in cooler weather and this gluten-free potato soup is no exception.
Table of Contents
Originally featured in my Autumn Cleanse Guide, this recipe is loved by the Simple Green Smoothies community and will quickly become a staple on your menu as well.
Vegan Potato Soup Ingredients
Here are the superstar ingredients that make this potato soup a cut above the rest:
- Coconut oil: This is my go-to healthy fat for cooking.
- Leeks: A gorgeous vegetable with a mild-onion flavor.
- Golden potatoes: Golden potatoes are the creamiest of the bunch. You can also use them in my Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie if you have extras.
- Garlic: Use real, whole garlic for the best flavor and nutritional benefits.
- Vegetable Stock: Do you know how easy it is to make your own stock?
- Cauliflower: A not-so-sneaky way to add creaminess and more veggies to my soup.
- Nutritional Yeast: A cheesy flavor without the dairy!
- Kale: Used in crunchy kale croutons to perfectly finish off this dinner.
That’s it! I know soups are known to have lengthy ingredient lists, but not this one! I keep it short, sweet and delicious.
Pro Tip: Depending on the type of vegetable stock you use, your final soup may be more yellow (I’m talking cheddar cheese!) or potato-white. Either is fine. It just depends on what’s in that stock.
Gluten-Free Potato Soup Ingredient Swaps
Soup is a wonderful meal idea since you can swap in/out ingredients for what you have on hand. If leeks are hard to find, use a yellow onion instead. While golden potatoes are usually on-hand at my house, use whatever potatoes you want. Cauliflower can be swapped with broccoli (just don’t be alarmed by the color change).
While I love the creaminess this vegan potato soup brings, sometimes I like to switch it up and leave a few potato chunks in the final product. Or add some chopped carrots for something to chew on.
How to Make Delicious Potato Soup
For a successful potato soup, you’ll need a large pot as well as a heat-safe blender (or immersion blender). I love using a ceramic Dutch Oven to sauté the veggies before simmering them into a soup.
Step 1: Start by heating the coconut oil or cooking oil of your choice in the large soup pot. Add the chopped leek and a pinch of salt to sauté.
Step 2: After the leek softens, add the minced garlic and sauté, stirring constantly. Garlic burns easily, so make sure you continue to stir the garlic while it browns to avoid burning.
Step 3: Since the cauliflower and potatoes will take about the same time to cook, add them both in next along with the vegetable stock. Once the pot is simmering, turn the heat down to keep it on a low simmer until everything is fork-tender. Adding a lid at this stage helps the vegetables soften faster as well as keep the flavors locked in.
Step 4: Remove the soup pot from the stove and on to the fun part! Check that your blender container can handle hot items (my old Vitamix couldn’t but my new one can), or decide if you want to use an immersion blender. The soup will be hot, so be careful. You may need to add a bit more vegetable stock at this step to help the soup blend nicely and still keep a soup-like consistency.
If I want some potato or cauliflower chunks in my soup, I’ll save a few and add them into the pot after I blend. Then I return the pot to the heat and cook for about ten minutes to soften the veggies. Now on to the best part… the kale croutons!
Crunchy Croutons
You can enjoy your beautifully fragrant potato soup at this point, but I strongly suggest giving these simple kale croutons a try. They are that good.
Step 1: While your soup is simmering, tear the kale into large pieces after removing the stems.
Step 2: Mix with melted coconut oil, Dijon mustard and sea salt until all the leaves are well coated. This gets a bit messy but is worth it.
Step 3: Bake at 300°F for 20-25 minutes, or until the kale is crispy. My croutons often firm up a bit more after removing from the oven if I keep them on the baking tray for a few minutes. This way I don’t over-cook them.
Topping this gluten-free potato soup with kale croutons keeps out the often inflammatory gluten but also provides quite a lovely burst of flavor.
Vegan Potato Soup FAQs
My vegan potato soup uses cauliflower to make it cream up during blending without needing any dairy.
No need! They will cook down nicely in the simmering stock mixture, so pre-soaking is an unnecessary step.
I use golden potatoes since they are the creamiest variety in my opinion, as well as cauliflower that creams up nicely when blended. Cauliflower adds another vegetable to your soup without adding any overpowering flavors.
More Autumn Soup Recipes
I love fresh Autumn produce, and what better way to use them than in warm soups? Here are a few of my go-to recipes this season:
- Tortilla Soup: This surprising soup is fun to make and enjoy with the toppings of your choice.
- Vegetable Noodle Soup: My take on a plant-based chicken noodle soup. All the flavor without the meat.
- Creamy Tomato Soup: The perfect soup for kids and adults alike, loaded with veggies.
- Carrot Ginger Soup: Probably my favorite lunch soup!
Which one has you searching for the Dutch oven? If you are a soup lover or looking for more ways to add veggies to your meals, then I encourage you to check out my 10-Day Challenge guide. It’s got four seasonal challenges. One is dedicated to soups! It’s a great way to increase your intake of produce. I love it and I hope you do too.
Don’t forget to rate + review this recipe once you’ve made it!
Vegan Potato Soup
Equipment
- dutch oven
- heat-safe blender
Ingredients
For Vegan Potato Soup:
- 2 tbsps coconut oil
- 2 leeks white part thinly sliced
- 4 gold potatoes chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 1 ½ cups cauliflower chopped
- dash sea salt
- dash ground black pepper
- dash nutritional yeast
For Kale Croutons:
- 2 cups kale tough stems removed
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Heat coconut oil in a large pot, Add the leek and a pinch of salt.
- Once the leeks start to soften, add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
- Add the vegetable stock, potatoes and cauliflower and bring to a simmer.
- Cook until cauliflower and potatoes are tender. While the soup is cooking, prepare the Kale Croutons.
- Remove soup from heat and puree using an immersion blender or standard blender (Use caution when blending-soup will be hot!). If soup is a little too thick, add a little more vegetable stock.
- Ladle into bowls and top with Kale Croutons. Season with salt, pepper and nutritional yeast.
For Kale Croutons:
- Tear kale into large pieces.
- Mix with remaining ingredients.
- Bake at 300°F for 20-25 minutes or until kale is crispy.
Notes
- To keep sodium levels lower, use low-sodium vegetable stock (or make your own!).
- Swap leek with 1 yellow onion.
- To create a chunkier soup, dice 1 extra potato and 2 carrots. Add to the large pot after blending and simmer the soup for 10 more minutes, or until vegetables are tender to your liking.Â
Recipe was great. My family that doesn’t eat cauliflower even ate it and didn’t know it was in there. We added cheese to give it a bit more flavor. I used green onions instead of leeks because that was all the grocery store had. I will definitely be making this one again.
Very flavorful Potato Comfort Soup, and Kale Chips! My first bowl, I enjoyed it chunky, so good. After my pot of soup cooled down, I whirled it it my Vitamix blender. Will definitely make this soup again. Thank you!
This soup was so good. Blending it gave it the perfect consistency. Adding dijon mustard to the kale chips was a game changer as well. My family loved this recipe! I doubled it and have the other half in the freezer for another chilly day.
Yummy. Love potato soup. Thanks for the recipe
Such a yummy, cozy soup. Our house smelled great while it was cooking and we could hardly wait to eat it. The kale croutons topped it off perfectly, except for the ones we snuck off the baking sheet. It will become a fall/winter regular.
Forgot to review it last night when I ate it (too busy licking the bowl) I loved this soup. I have a soup setting on my vitamix so I browned the leeks and garlic and added everything to the vitamix and about 10 minutes later I had a thick boiling soup. It was kind of amazing how quick and easy it was. I’ll be making this one again for sure!!
Since I am one person, I made half a recipe and still have a lot of this delicious soup to enjoy!! The flavors are subtle. The kale croutons make the whole thing pop- flavor and color!! I am making this often, from now on, I can tell. Thanks for a great recipe!!
The name of the soup says it all. Truly a comforting soup with potatoes and cauliflower. I don’t cook with onions or garlic anymore and I didn’t add nutritional yeast or kale chips and it was still delicious and satisfying.
I make this soup often, especially when I have a surplus of cauliflower on hand and have even added a carrot or two to the recipe. When a soup is still tasty even leaving out some of the ingredients, you know you’ve got a winner!
This soup was tasty though a bit on the bland side. I tasted the leeks pretty strongly. We served it with some andouille sausages that we had in the freezer. I think next time I might add a dollop of creme freshe.
Tasty, but I did need to add some miso for a bit more depth of flavor.
Delicious and lighter with the cauliflower instead of all potatoes.
We really liked this soup even though it was not made with milk or cream. The texture was a little “gummy” but perhaps had too much potato – might be more helpful to have a measurement of how much potato in cups instead of number of potatoes.
Yummy
This soup was a win win!! Easy to make and delicious. Loved how creamy and rich it tasted and with no dairy. My girls even asked for seconds. We will be making it again soon!
Definitely a ‘keeper’. So satisfying, yet healthy. My husband asked for more and loved the kale croutons. I made as per instructions, except I had used extra cauliflower to use up the whole quart bag of frozen cauliflower that I had on hand. Nutritional yeast was a nice add. I’ve done kale chips before, but never h made with the Dijon mustard. The kale chips give a nice texture and flavor addition. Would be proud to serve this to any guest at our home.
I used organic chicken bone broth which is what I had on hand. This soup was a bit too gluey and bland for my taste. In future, I will try making veg. stock and add some more seasoning. My husband tasted the cauliflower too much so I would use half the amount next time or swap for something else. He has swallowing problems, so this soup is one he could eat by adding a little cornstarch to thicken a bit more. This recipe is worth tinkering with as it has possibilities.
I really liked the croutons with and without the soup. I used baby kale. Mine came out rather salty but still good. This is the best way I have found to eat kale which I don’t tend to like.
This soup is rich and creamy and tastes delicious. I love the healthy ingredients and that it is easy to make. This is a soup I will definitely make again to stay warm.