Our best potato soup recipes include everything from my easy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe for a creamy vegetable soup that’s incredibly comforting, and an easy chicken and potato soup recipe for a homemade potato and chicken soup with a stock made from scratch to a loaded baked potato soup topped with crispy bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and chives.
I remember when I first published this collection of our best potato soup recipes last year that three of our most popular recipes on the site that month had been recipes for potato soups – which was no surprise, of course. Potato soups are so comforting and we all need comfort in these challenging times.
I’m re-sharing this compilation of our best potato soup recipes from our recipe archives for our southern hemisphere readers currently experiencing a brutal winter, your convenience as much as my own. I’m still recovering from a recent bout of Covid and all I feel like eating is soup. Although I have just started cooking again and will share some new recipes with you soon.
This round-up of our best potato soup recipes includes my potato and bacon soup recipe for warming potato soup topped with crispy bacon, crumbled croutons and crunchy fried shallots, a rustic chunky potato soup with sautéed cabbage, smoky pork sausage and butter beans, and a creamy corn chowder without cream, the creamy consistency courtesy of the potatoes.
The collections also includes recipes where potatoes aren’t the key ingredient, but these soups wouldn’t provide the same level of comfort if they didn’t contain potatoes. There’s my green minestrone soup recipe that changes like the seasons, transforming from a light spring soup on the first day you dish it up to a hearty autumn-winter broth after refrigerating it overnight.
I also have an old-fashioned vegetable barley soup recipe for a versatile clean-out-the-fridge soup that’s deliciously filling, deeply flavourful, and super affordable. It’s inspired by a soup my Australian grandmother used to make to use up an abundant harvest from my grandfather’s backyard veggie garden.
We’ve also got a creamy corn chowder that isn’t strictly a potato soup but is rather a corn chowder with potatoes. Chowders are traditionally thickened with milk or cream, however, I use potatoes to give this chowder a creamy consistency, and crunchy homemade croutons to add texture.
And if you enjoy slurping soups as much as I do, please do check out our other soup recipe round-ups. We have collections of chicken soups, noodle soups, chicken noodle soups, and fish soups, along with warming winter soups and cold summer soups, depending on what hemisphere you’re in.
Now before I share our best potato soup recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes or other content on the site, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could make a small donation to our epic original Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or buy us a coffee and we’ll use that donation to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
Another option is to use our links next time you’re planning a trip to book accommodation, rent a car, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Get Your Guide. Or buy something on Amazon, such as these James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, and cookbooks for culinary travellers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra.
You could also shop our Grantourismo store on Society6 for gifts for foodies, including fun reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let’s tell you all about our best potato soup recipes.
Best Potato Soup Recipes from Chicken Potato Soup to Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Before I share our best potato soup recipes I wanted to share some of my best tips for making delicious potato soups.
Tips to Making our Best Potato Soup Recipes
Just a few tips to making our best potato soup recipes, starting with the potatoes. I rarely recommend a type of potato to use, because Grantourismo readers are located right around the world, and not everyone is going to be able to source the same kinds of potatoes. But do let us know if you need potato suggestions in the comments at the end of the relevant post.
I know many of our readers can source scores of potato varieties – for instance, Australia has some 4,000 potato varieties, although apparently only about 60 potato varieties are widely available commercially – whereas we can only access 3-5 potato varieties at any one time here in Cambodia. And they all come from Australia! If you’re unsure what variety of potato to use, please don’t hesitate to ask and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.
Unless we’re making vegetarian soups, which we do make often, we mostly use homemade chicken stock, which we prepare regularly using a simple method I explain in this chicken and potato soup recipe, however, you could certainly use a store-bought stock, chicken bouillon or chicken stock cubes.
If I want a thick and creamy potato soup, I typically boil the diced potatoes separately first so they break down faster. If I want the potatoes to remain firm, I boil the potatoes in their skins, let them cool, then peel and dice them.
For most of my frying needs, I use a round flat bottomed wok. I love it and use the wok for everything – we live in Southeast Asia, after all – but you could use your favourite frying pan or skillet. I then transfer the ingredients to a big soup pot. I find a slotted spoon is super handy for tasks such as scooping out fried bacon, so I don’t lose too much of that heavenly bacon fat, which I’ll then use to fry onions and garlic.
My soup pantry essentials include quality sea salt, white pepper, cracked black pepper, bay leaves, chilli flakes, crispy fried shallots, and extra virgin olive oil. We make our own homemade croutons in a mortar and pestle.
Our best potato soup recipes are brilliant if you’ve been doing more meal planning, batch-cooking and freezing dishes than usual to save money. Please know that you’re not alone! The soaring inflation and cost of living crisis is being felt by so many around the world.
Some say that potato soups don’t freeze well, but I find that most of these potato soups freeze perfectly fine, and if anything, are even creamier after de-frosting and re-heating. I haven’t tested them all yet, but I will.
For instance, I pour single portions of my leftover chunky potato soup into reusable freezer bags such as ziploc bags, freeze them, and defrost them for lunch. I end up with a wonderfully creamy potato soup that serves as an especially comforting lunch. Now let me tell you all about our best potato soup recipes.
Our Best Potato Soup Recipes
Our best potato soup recipes include a creamy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe, an easy chicken and potato soup recipe, a loaded baked potato soup and more.
Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Creamy Vegetable Soup
Our easy cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe makes a creamy vegetable soup that’s incredibly comforting and if you only make one of our potato soups, this is my pick of our best potato soup recipes.
You could enjoyably slurp it as is on a chilly autumn or fall evening, dunking toast into the velvety broth, or add texture by sprinkling crushed croutons, fresh fragrant dill sprigs, and cracked black pepper on top.
This silky vegetable soup tastes so rich and creamy you’d think there was cream in it – there isn’t! – and while you could happily tuck into a bowl on the sofa in your PJs on a Sunday night (which is what I’m doing tonight), you could also make it a bit fancy.
In fact, my inspiration for this cauliflower cabbage potato soup recipe was partly a heavenly cauliflower soup that Terence used to make for dinner parties years ago when we lived in the UAE. We frequently had friends over for multi-course tasting menus Terence prepared that rivalled any Michelin-starred European restaurant.
Terence would often begin his divine degustation menus with an amuse bouche of creamy cauliflower soup that was a hit with our guests: a shot glass of a rich creamy cauliflower soup that was topped with a dollop of cream, a spoonful of caviar, and a sprinkle of finely-sliced chives or micro-herbs. You could also do that with this soup.
Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Creamy Vegetable Soup
Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe for a Soothing Soup that Starts with an Easy Stock
This easy chicken and potato soup recipe makes a homemade potato and chicken soup from scratch that is soothing and healing, making it another of my favourites of our best potato soup recipes.
It’s a simple, hearty soup that’s subtly seasoned but given texture at the end with crunchy croutons and crispy fried onions, and is enlivened by fresh fragrant dill – or any aromatic herb of your choosing, as it’s incredibly versatile.
The base of this warming winter soup is the easiest chicken stock you’ll ever make, made from perfectly poached chicken breasts, which you then pull apart and add to the broth near the end.
This is the kind of soup I love to make a big pot of if I’m feeling unwell or a little down or in need of hugs – no matter what the weather. I’ll happily nurse a bowl of this healing soup, whether it’s winter or summer – when I’ll blast the air-con before dishing it up.
Straightforward and with a super-simple stock that’s a cinch to make, my chicken and potato soup recipe is the kind of soup I wish I’d known how to make when I was younger and reached for a can of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup or potato soup whenever I was sick.
Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Soup that Starts with an Easy Stock
Baked Potato Soup Recipe with Crispy Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Sour Cream and Spring Onions
This baked potato soup recipe has been hugely popular with our readers, making it another of our best potato soup recipes. It makes a creamy potato soup topped with crispy bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and spring onions or chives.
The delicious potato soup is not made with baked potatoes, rather it’s inspired by the traditional British baked potato or jacket potato with toppings first sold by hawkers on the streets of London back in the mid-1800s.
I grew up in Australia tucking into baked potatoes – or jacket potatoes as we also called them, as they were baked in their skins or ‘jackets’ – at family backyard barbecues or on holiday camping trips.
At home, mum and I were responsible for the oven-baked potatoes, which I salted and wrapped in aluminium foil, and mum baked on an oven tray. We’d put all the toppings into small bowls – crispy bacon pieces, grated cheese, sour cream, and spring onions – and everyone would load their own potatoes.
On holiday camping trips, dad was responsible for the jacket potatoes, which we’d wrap in foil and bury beneath the glowing coals of a toasty fireplace. I loved those best as they had a smoky smell as much as flavour.
This baked potato soup is based on those jacket potatoes – just without the smokiness. I need to work on that!
Baked Potato Soup Recipe with Crispy Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Sour Cream and Spring Onions
Chunky Potato Soup Recipe with Cabbage, Smoky Pork Sausage, Butter Beans and Sour Cream
My chunky potato soup recipe makes a hearty, creamy potato soup with sautéed cabbage, smoky pork sausage and butter beans, to which I add fresh dill and finely chopped parsley, and a dollop of sour cream, which I stir through just before eating.
It’s a deliciously filling broth that’s perfect for an easy mid-week meal or lazy weekend when you’re in the mood for staying in and hugging a comforting bowl of soup – and it’s easily another of my best potato soup recipes.
This chunky potato soup recipe makes an Eastern European style soup, based on my Russian-Ukrainian baboushka’s recipe for the cabbage soup called shchi, below, although I leave out the dried spices, flavouring the broth with garlic, bay leaves and fresh herbs, and seasoning simply with sea salt and white pepper, so it’s more family-friendly.
My grandmother used a kind of soft smoky pork kielbasa or Polish sausage in her soups, which were easy to get in local delis in Western Sydney, and added loads of flavour. We can’t get them here, so I’ve used a British smoky pork sausage, which also works.
Chunky Potato Soup Recipe with Cabbage, Smoky Pork Sausage, Butter Beans and Sour Cream
Potato and Bacon Soup Recipe with Crispy Bacon, Crumbly Croutons and Crunchy Fried Shallots
My potato and bacon soup recipe makes a warming potato bacon soup topped with crispy bacon, crumbled homemade croutons and crunchy fried shallots and it’s another one of our best potato soup recipes.
Textured and loaded with umami thanks to the bacon and toppings, it’s a hearty bowl of soup that more closely resembles a potato stew. Grind on some cracked black pepper or sprinkle on chilli flakes for added warmth.
This potato and bacon soup recipe was inspired by my chunky potato soup, above, and just a few ingredients set them apart, such as the bacon. I use six bacon rashers, which gives it that umami. It’s another versatile soup, too.
You can substitute vegetables (I like carrots in this; mushrooms also work), seasonings and spices (ground paprika or chilli flakes add more warmth), and toppings and garnishes (fried mushrooms and fresh herbs), and really transform it but know that it’s still going to be deliciously comforting.
Potato and Bacon Soup Recipe with Crispy Bacon, Crumbly Croutons and Crunchy Fried Shallots
Green Minestrone Soup Recipe that Changes Like the Seasons from a Light Spring Soup to Hearty Autumn Broth
This green minestrone soup recipe makes an easy, versatile, year-round soup that starts out as a light fresh spring soup the first day you make it, but leave it overnight and it evolves into a warming, hearty autumn or winter broth.
Vegetables can be substituted according to the season but use frozen peas and frozen beans in autumn and you can pretend it’s spring! Just don’t forget the potatoes, which make this one of our best potato recipes.
Although there are only two of us, I make enough of this soup for six so that there’ll be leftovers to refrigerate overnight. On the first day, I simmer everything until just-cooked, adding the beans and peas at the end so that they’re still fresh, firm and bright green when serving.
Then, while we’re eating, I leave the remaining soup to simmer longer, until the potatoes are soft and starting to break apart, until the butter beans are rich and creamy, and the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind is melting and oozing. I refrigerate it overnight and the next day we have a hearty stew-like broth for lunch and dinner.
Old-Fashioned Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe for a Versatile Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup
This easy vegetable barley soup recipe makes a versatile clean-out-the-fridge soup that’s deliciously filling, deeply flavourful, and super affordable, and it’s yet another of our best potato soup recipes.
The recipe was inspired by a soup my Australian grandmother used to make to use up an abundant harvest from my grandfather’s backyard veggie garden, and while the veggies would vary depending on the season, nanna would always include potatoes.
You can follow my recipe or use whatever you have that’s looking wilted, shrivelled and forlorn for the ultimate clean-out-your-veggie-drawer broth made for these economically challenging times.
We recently returned home from a short trip to Phnom Penh to a fridge full of limp vegetables and herbs that had definitely seen better days. Instead of despairing, I saw it as an opportunity to make this hearty, comforting clean-out-the-fridge soup, as well as share some advice for when you find yourself in the same predicament, including some food safety tips.
Old-Fashioned Vegetable Barley Soup Recipe for a Versatile Clean-Out-the-Fridge Soup
Creamy Corn Chowder Recipe with Potatoes, Parmesan and Croutons
Okay, so corn chowder probably isn’t strictly a potato soup but is rather a corn chowder with potatoes. Regardless, I’m filing it here, as my corn chowder recipe makes a creamy potato corn chowder with Parmigiano Reggiano, scallions and croutons and I reckon it’s another of my best potato soup recipes.
The chowder is ever so lightly spiced with a little curry powder, ground turmeric and ground paprika – so gently spiced it just adds warmth. A rind of Parmigiano Reggiano melts in the chowder adding a kick of umami.
The deliciously dense creamy corn soup is traditionally thickened with milk or cream, however, I use potatoes to give it a creamy consistency, and crunchy homemade croutons to add texture.
I created this during our summer corn season here in Cambodia and while I’m happy to munch into a simple piping hot cob of corn, dripping with butter and generously sprinkled with salt, I also can’t resist making corn salads, corn fritters, corn salsas, corn soups, Mexican corn in a cup, and corn chowder. If you’re a corn lover, we have loads of corn recipes here.
Creamy Corn Chowder Recipe with Potatoes, Parmesan, Croutons and a Potted Chowder History
Easy Russian Cabbage Soup Recipe for Shchi, The Most Russian of Soups – And Vegan!
This Russian cabbage soup recipe makes shchi (Щи), the most Russian of soups. If my Russian-Ukrainian baboushka wasn’t making borscht, she was cooking a big pot of shchi.
A very old soup that was eaten by nobles and peasants alike, the wealthy would include meat in their shchi, while workers made a vegetarian soup, shchi vegetarianskiye, you can skip the sour cream (not something I could do!) and you have a vegan shchi.
While you might have thought that borscht was the quintessential Russian soup, the beetroot-based meat and vegetable broth is one of the most popular and best-known Russian soups, but its origin is much-contested and claimed by the Ukrainians.
Shchi is resolutely Russian and so beloved by Russians that the Moscow Times called it a “national treasure”. It dates to the 9th century, when cabbage arrived in ‘the Land of the Rus’ from Byzantium.
Easy Russian Cabbage Soup Recipe for Shchi, The Most Russian of Soups – And Vegan!
Published 10 October 2022; Updated and Republished 12 July 2023
Please do let us know if you make any of our best potato soup recipes as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.
