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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!
Don’t forget to rate + review this recipe once you’ve made it!
Vegan Potato Soup
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.
Equipment
- dutch oven
- heat-safe blender
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.
This soup was very good it was creamy and smooth. Tasted like it was loaded with cream and butter but was so much healthier.
This is my son’s favorite soup. He needs the carbs and is eating more clean so this recipe was easy for him and tastes great!
I enjoyed this soup a lot! I had to make two changes: 1) I used chopped yellow onions to replace the frozen leeks I could not find in my freezer and 2) I had to forego the kale chips, because when I went to my garden to pick kale, it had been eaten to lacy shreds by cabbage moth worms! I was surprised and pleased by how much flavor the nutritional yeast added. I’ll make this again (and I’ll try to get all the ingredients right next time!)
I am ready for my second bowl! Yum! Added a little extra all the way around, since I share, and we both love potato soup. Kale came from my little container garden, some from a three year old kale plant that just continues to grow! Great recipe!
Tasty soup, but needs the croutons. I would have given it 5 stars if the soup was able to stand on its own (for days you just don’t feel like doing an extra step). Definitely make the croutons. That mustard-y zing brightens the soup up nicely. (I guess you could serve the soup with a tiny dollop of mustard if you just really don’t want to make the kale croutons.)
The soup is an easy make. I used the leek greens as well as whites, so the color was a little–not so nice–but the flavor was still wonderful. (We love garlic so I probably tripled that). If you want milder flavor and a nicer color….stick to the recipe. 🙂 The kale croutons are easy enough to make, but sometimes…you just don’t wanna.
This recipe is now one of my husband’s favorite soup recipes. He said, “that’s a keeper”. It had plenty of body, not watery. Lots of flavor too.
I can’t wait to make this soup.
This soup is amazing! It’s so creamy it’s hard to believe there isn’t cream in it. The kale croutons with Dijon make it even better!
I replaced the coconut oil with broth because I don’t want any saturated fats in my food. wonderful recipe.
Delicious and creamy! I used one golden potato, a Japanese sweet potato, and a regular sweet potato instead of all golden to keep from spiking my blood sugar and it was delicious!
Soup was good. Added a few cauliflower and potato pieces after blending to give texture. The Kale croutons were great for the added texture. Will be adding those to a daily snacks too. Yum!
My mom and I loved the recipe. I have never had kale croutons before. It was a great addition. My mom said “compliments to the chef.”
My husband and I love the Potato Comfort Soup, and it is perfect for a cool Fall day. I used 2 sweet onions since leeks are not available, and white potatoes instead of yellow potatoes. The kale croutons are very tasty and easy to make. This soup is a winner and we will make it often.
Made this soup in my regular Vitamix blender today, for lunch. Delicious!
Soooo good and so easy to make! Still very creamy without the butter and cream.
I had to compromise with this recipe a little since we live in a camper in a remote area. I couldn’t find leeks, so I used green onions, and I don’t have a big pot, so I sauteed and cooked the soup in my pressure cooker, then blended it to a smooth creamy consistency in my Vitamix blender on the soup setting. It came out great and the kale croutons were the perfect finishing touch!