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.
I love this soup. I followed the suggestion to leave some of the potatoes whole to add a chunkier texture. I took some out before blending. I also used low sodium bone broth and an onion instead of leeks. Very filling and comforting!
Hi Beth! That suggestion was a great one, especially if you like a chunkier texture!
Definitely had to add salt, pepper and yeast at the end but it was good and I enjoyed the kale croutons. Never used kale in that way before and will definitely try it again. I was hungry and forgot to take a picture.
Hi Joan! The Kale Croutons really make this recipe special!
I forgot to remember that I had chicken broth instead of vegie. It was great. Next time I will make it with the veggie broth.. All other instructions followed.
Hi Mary Ann! No worries on using chicken broth this go round, I’m sure it turned out great regardless.
This soup was delicious! The kale croutons were a pleasant addition. I didn’t think they would be so good. This recipe is going in the drawer for when cooler weather hits. ❤️
Hi Lori! Thanks for the awesome review, the kale croutons are the cherry on top right?!
Loved this soup! I also put some carrots. It was filling and lovely. Thank you!
Hi Olga! Yayy!! So glad you loved this one, carrots are a great addition!
Very tasty and easy to make potato soup. I added one carrot. Love it!
Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Nancy! Love the addition of a carrot, a great way to add some more nutrients to this one!
The soup was very good, i added more garlic and onion powder plus sea salt to my taste. The soup was a hit for the children especially to those that would not eat califlower normally.
Hi Lucia! Kid-approved is important that’s for sure, so glad to hear this was a hit for your family!
My family loved this soup. We decided to keep it chunky and used a hand smasher instead of blender. I added bacon so it wasn’t vegan. Kale croutons were a hit.
Hi Jamie! Ooohhh that’s a great idea to keep it chunky and the addition of bacon was delish I’m sure!
This soup is definitely a keeper. Full of flavor and very filling.
Hi Terry! Thanks so much for your review! This recipe will definitely be nice for those cooler Autumn/Winter evenings.
I am not vegan, but want to eat more veggies. I did use a bit of butter to sauté my veggies and at the end, I did add some half and half to taste and consistency. It was good without it, but with it, it was divine. I also topped with chopped chives and fresh pepper.
Hi Laura! No worries on not being vegan, eating more plants is our real mission, vegan or not! I bet the half and half really kicked it up a notch, great way to improvise!
Day 1 and a great success! We both enjoyed this soup. The kale croutons added flavor so we had no need to add any salt, which is always a good thing. I can see me making this again and experimenting with other combinations of vegetables. I didn’t add the extra potato or carrot as I am partial to the creamy texture of blended soups. It was very filling as well, you wouldn’t expect to be so full from a bowl of soup but there it is!
Hi K.B.! Thanks so much for rating and reviewing the Vegan Potato soup. You definitely keep the creamy texture by skipping the extra carrot and potato, yet still get a great taste!
A nice warm hearty soup! The whole family loved it especially the kale croutons.
I was on vacation when this started so I am starting a little late. Love this soup. Will be making it instead of traditional potato soup from now on.
All your soup recipes look very tempting. # 2 and 3 got deleted inadvertently. Please resend #2 and 3 to me.
Thanks
This was great! Loved the toppings and nutritional yeast.
Recipe was simple and tasty.