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Potato Soup

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This easy Potato Soup recipe is truly the best! It’s quick and easy to make on the stovetop, it’s nice and creamy (without using heavy cream), and it’s always so cozy and comforting and delicious.

The BEST Potato Soup Recipe

Do you have a favorite potato soup recipe?

If not — psst — bookmark this one!

This easy potato soup recipe has been my tried-and-true, back-pocket, all-time-favorite for over a decade now. It’s perfectly rich and creamy (without using heavy cream), it’s full of flavor (because bland potato soup is the worst), it’s easy to adapt to be vegetarian and/or gluten-free (see below), and it is always, always a crowd fave. I promise it won’t let you down.

Let’s make some potato soup!

Potato Soup Recipe | 1-Minute Video

Potato Soup Ingredients:

To make this easy potato soup recipe, you will need:

  • Bacon: I recommend using center-cut bacon here, to keep it a bit more lean. But any kind of bacon you love will do. We will also use its leftover grease (or butter, if you prefer) to sauté the veggies for extra flavor. That said, if you would like to make this soup vegetarian, see my recommendations below for a delicious meatless version.
  • Veggies: Onion and garlic.
  • Flour: We will use flour to make a roux to thicken the soup. Or if you would like a lighter soup, you can skip this step and just puree part of the soup to thicken it. (See tips below.)
  • Chicken stock and milk: These will form the broth of our soup. Feel free to use chicken or veggie stock, and then whatever kind of milk you prefer (I used 2% cow’s milk).
  • Potatoes: I highly recommend making this soup with buttery Yukon gold potatoes. But russets or red potatoes would also do.
  • Cheese: I recommend a good sharp cheddar cheese here for maximum flavor.
  • Greek yogurt or sour cream: To make the soup extra-creamy.
  • Salt and pepper: Add in as much as you need at the end to season your soup well.

And finally…toppings! I’m a big believer that the more, the merrier when it comes to toppings and potato soup. Some classic options could include

  • Extra bacon, extra shredded cheese, thinly-sliced green onions or chives, sour cream, fresh thyme, sprinkle of Cajun seasoning

The BEST Potato Soup

How To Make Potato Soup:

To make this potato soup recipe, simply:

  1. Cook the bacon. Dice and then sauté it in a large stockpot until it’s nice and crispy. Then transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels, and reserve a few tablespoons of leftover grease in the stockpot (discarding the rest.)
  2. Sauté the veggies. Sauté the onion and garlic in the bacon grease until softened. Then stir in some flour, to create your roux.
  3. Add broth and potatoes. Then add the stock, milk and potatoes. Cook until the potatoes until softened, being sure to stir the soup regularly so that the bottom does not burn.
  4. Add remaining ingredients. Then stir in the cheese, Greek yogurt (or sour cream), and crispy bacon bits. Taste and season the soup with salt and pepper.
  5. Serve warm. Then serve it up, loaded up with all of your favorite toppings!

Homemade Potato Soup with Bacon and Cheddar

Possible Variations:

Guys, there are so many ways to customize this soup! Some possibilities could include:

  • Make it vegetarian: Nix the bacon. And in its place, add in 2-3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning for a bit of extra flavor. (Plus, use butter or olive oil in place of the bacon grease.)
  • Make it gluten-free: You could either:
    • omit the flour, and instead, whisk a tablespoon of cornstarch into the cold milk and then add it to the soup
    • don’t worry about cornstarch/flour at all, and instead, puree half of the soup to thicken it
  • Lighten it up: Feel free to:
    • omit the flour and 2 tablespoons of grease/butter, and instead, puree half of the soup to thicken it
    • use skim milk
    • use turkey bacon (although you may need to add in a little extra olive oil or butter to sauté the veggies)
  • Add in extra seasoning: If you would like to give your soup an extra twist, feel free to add in 1 tablespoon:
  • Use a mix of potatoes: For something different, feel free to use a mix of Yukon gold potatoes and sweet potatoes, for more of a sweet and savory blend of flavors
  • Add in some extra veggies: If you’d like to load this up with extra veggies, feel free to toss in a handful of chopped cauliflower and/or broccoli along with the potatoes. They work well with this recipe too!

Loaded Homemade Potato Soup Recipe

What To Serve With Potato Soup:

Looking for some side dishes to serve with this potato soup recipe? Here are a few of my faves:

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The BEST Potato Soup Recipe

The BEST Potato Soup!

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 591 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 6 -8 servings 1x

Description

This easy Potato Soup recipe is quick and easy to make on the stovetop, it’s nice and creamy (without using heavy cream), and it’s always so cozy and comforting and delicious.  See notes above for possible variations, including how to make this soup vegetarian.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 5 slices bacon, diced
  • 3 tablespoons (reserved) bacon grease or butter
  • 1 cup diced white or yellow onion
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
  • 2 cups milk, warmed
  • 1.5 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, diced
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt, or more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
  • optional toppings: thinly-sliced green onions or chives, extra shredded cheese, extra bacon, sour cream

Instructions

  1. Heat a large stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add diced bacon and cook until crispy, stirring occasionally.  Transfer the bacon to a separate plate, using a slotted spoon, reserving about 3 tablespoons of bacon grease in the stockpot.  (Discard any extra grease, or you can substitute butter in place of the 3 tablespoons of bacon grease.  Also, if you are short on time, you can dice the potatoes and onion while the bacon cooks to save time.)
  2. Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft.  Stir in the garlic and sauté for an extra 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until fragrant.  Stir the flour into the mixture and sauté for an additional 1 minute to cook the flour, stirring occasionally.  Then stir in the stock until combined, followed by the milk and potatoes.
  3. Continue cooking until the mixture just reaches a simmer, before it begins to boil.  Then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft, being sure to stir the soup every few minutes so that the bottom does not burn.  (The smaller you dice your potatoes, the faster your soup will cook.)
  4. Once the potatoes are nice and soft, stir in the cheddar cheese and Greek yogurt (or sour cream), salt, pepper and cooked bacon bits.  Taste and season with extra salt and pepper, if needed.
  5. Serve warm, garnished with desired toppings.  Or, transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Notes

  • Be sure to also check out our Slow Cooker Potato Soup recipe too — made easy in the crock pot!
  • This recipe was originally shared here in December 2014.

This post contains affiliate links.

The BEST Potato Soup Recipe from Gimme Some Oven

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1,351 comments on “Potato Soup”

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  1. I have used a few recipes on Pinterest but I have never left a comment. I had to this time!! This is the very best potato soup I have ever tasted. Thanks for posting this, it is a keeper and will be my “Go To” anytime I am craving potato soup.






  2. This is my favorite potato soup recipe by far. I make it all the time. Thanks for sharing it.

  3. My picky eater daughter wanted soup for supper and thought let me try cream of potato (first ever attempt) and it was truly delicious. I don’t eat bacon so I didn’t include but this recipe is so flavourful it wasn’t lacking, I’ll try with turkey bacon one day. I topped with smoked paprika and crushed red pepper flakes and it was divine. A+++






  4. Seriously the best potato soup ever!! It’s my favorite. At the end I also take about 5-6 scoops and blend it and then add it back in. Thanks for such an awesome recipe ❤️






  5. I absolutely love this potato soup! It’s so easy to make and delicious! Only thing I added was a little garlic in with the onion. Great recipe!!!






  6. Of all the potatoe soup recipes this is my favorite been making for several years now. Love it! I’m making this today because I have some potatoes that needs to be used, and I’m adding some celery, shredded carrot with the onion and a touch of cayenne pepper for some extra zip.






  7. This is the best potatoe soup I’ve ever had, I’m not one to leave surveys or comments about how things went or how people did, although, I loved this recipe, it’s worth every second and I even posted it for others to try it! I encourage it!

  8. My family loves this soup! The only problem is that it disappears so quickly. Does this recipe double well?






    • I made a double (should’ve made a triple) batch tonight and it was just fine. My house ate the entire pot

  9. Yum, very good soup! I added 1-2 cloves of garlic to the onions and used 2 pounds of potatoes. I also increased the liquid and used 3 cups chicken stock with 2 cups whole milk and omitted the yogurt/sour cream. Next time I’m going to add a carrot, celery stalk and some thyme to the soup and see if that gives it a little bit more flavor.

  10. I absolutely LOVED this recipe. We had almost all of the ingredients in the kitchen already and it was so good that all of it was gone by the end of the night.
    I added some red pepper flakes at the end, but that’s just because I like spicy food.






  11. LOVE this soup! This recipe is my kind of recipe, it’s easy for one. I cheat too; for one I use “Hormel Real Crumbled Bacon” and I also use “Better Than Boullion” vegetable broth because I’m allergic to chicken broth. My family loves the soup! Thanks for a recipe 1. using milk instead of cream 2. without other vegetables to chop which would make the whole prep time a LOT LONGER like other recipes have i.e. carrots and celery 3. and thanks for adding all kinds of suggestions for substitutions, etc. A favorite I’ve cooked a few times already and my family has raved about each time!






  12. I loved this potato soup recipe! I added 3 diced carrots and 1 stalk of celery diced in with the onion. It was great!






  13. Family favorite!!!






  14. May be the best we’ve ever had, and it’s so easy!






  15. It was sooo yummy!! I added peas and used hamburger instead of the bacon(which I WILL use sometime!). Also I just used water, seasoned salt, and a little Italian dressing instead of the chicken stock. This recipe is THE BEST!!






  16. This soup does sound yummy. I must say, though, that to toss bacon grease is a sacrilege in my opinion. I grew up on dishes that included bacon fat for sautéing onions, among other things. My all time favorite Hungarian dish from childhood (my father was born in Hungary), is chopped cabbage sautéed in bacon fat, then mixed with about an equal quantity of pasta, such as small shells, and seasoned generously with black pepper. I did go through a time in life when I didn’t save bacon fat, back when I was always dieting, but no more. I now deliberately keep a jar of it in my fridge.

  17. This soup was DELICIOUS !! My son requested it &. I had never made potato soup before so turned to Pinterest for a recipe & this was amazingly good! Thanks!!






  18. I made this recipe tonight. It was the perfect meal for a blustery, wet, Pennsylvania fall day. I added extra chicken broth and milk to thin and to make a little more. Next time I’ll double this recipe.






  19. This soup was delicious! The only thing I did differently was added diced carrot and celery with the onion. Seriously. Yummy!






  20. Super, super delicious! Definitely will make again!

  21. This absolutely is the best potato soup I’ve ever had. It tastes just like my mom’s when I was growing up! This will forever be a family favorite.






  22. Best potato soup ever! I did the same as another and added more stock just to fill the pot a bit more. I’ll double this recipe next time! This will be the only potato soup recipe I’ll use from now on! Thanks for sharing.






  23. Oh my! So yummy and fairly quick!

  24. I just made this and I’m in love! I couldn’t believe I made something so delicious, thank you so much for the recipe!






  25. New favorite potato soup recipe!






  26. I usually don’t comment but this is by far the best potato soup recipe I have ever had! The format of the recipe had me confused due to measurements being at the end of the recipe so I starting out guessing at measurements which ended up being pretty accurate.
    I plan on fixing it again this weekend for a family fall get-together and will at least triple the batch. Fantastic recipe!!






  27. YUM!!! This was sOuper (ha).
    My husband has randomly mentioned potato soup the day before you posted this, so I knew I needed to make it as soon as I saw it. This was a huge hit with the whole family, including our 1-year-old. Thanks again!






  28. My favorite potato soup recipe by far!! I’ve made this one a few times!!






  29. YUMMY! Love this soup! I’m vegetarian and omitted the bacon and milk. I substituted with almond milk, added a blend of spices (chili powder, cumin, paprika) and semi-mashed the potatoes at the end. Added a dollop of siracha to give it some heat. So good!






  30. I wanted to read all of the comments but holy cow….lol, I’ve never seen so many posts on one recipe! I’m making this right now and so far it’s looking so delicious. The only thing that I was a little concerned about was, either I didn’t have enough bacon grease left over or a quarter cup of flour was a little too much so not sure I cooked the flour long enough and I’ve done that before making gravy and it tasted like raw flour. Im sure its doing to be wonderful tho! Thanks so much for a great recipe!

  31. Delicious recipe that I would highly recommend! Thanks for sharing!






  32. This soup was so good!!! I used pepper bacon and that gave it a nice spicy kick. Will definitely save this recipe so I can make it again.






  33. This really is excellent potato soup. When I was lying in bed last night and couldn’t sleep, I was thinking about it (everyone does that, right?) and I thought it had corn in it, but it doesn’t. I loved it the way it is, but I also think it might be good with some corn in it, so I will try that next time. Thanks for a great recipe!






    • I thought the same about the corn. So I added corn to mine and it was nice added sweet flavor.

  34. Has this recipe always had garlic in it? I’ve made it many times and don’t remember using garlic. I followed the recipe today and put 3 cloves in and it’s super garlicky and doesn’t taste like I remember!

  35. Very tasty and filling. Didn’t skip a beat with this recipe.






  36. Great recipe!! I added carrots and Celery!! Delicious!!






  37. Made this last night. I am veg so it was veg stock and no bacon. Also used fat free half and half rather than milk and sour cream. It was super tasty! My husband, a meat eater, likes to cook and has a particular style so is super picky about anything else I cook and he loved it!






  38. This soup is divine! Really enjoyed it. Have any of you frozen it? Curious as to your advice on how to do it best. I love this soup! Eating it now.






  39. The BEST! the only thing that could have made this better for me was to top with green onion, which I don’t have on hand. My only changes: 7 slices of bacon, used 4 cups of chicken stock, used Russet potatoes and probably more than the 1.5 lbs, since it was what I had, used half and half for the milk and cooked longer than 15 mins to ensure my potatoes were nice and soft (even though they were smaller diced pieces). I would omit the sour cream next time or use the yogurt instead. This is a very good recipe and perfect for these colder months. Definitely will print this one and use again. (I never discard bacon fat if I can help it, because it adds so much flavor especially to cooked eggs!)






  40. So tempting. I want to make it at home, thank you for sharing the information, I think this is very beneficial






  41. WOW! This potato soup was delicious! Followed the recipe & couldn’t be happier. My husband & I ate the whole pot full ourselves! Will definitely make again! Thanks for the recipe.






  42. I made this in my new cast iron dutch oven tonight. Absolutely fantastic and will be making again!






  43. LOVE this soup. I always have to make a double batch because my husband devours it! Thank you for posting the recipe! Definitely my ‘go to’ recipe for potato soup.






  44. Easy recipe, delicious flavor!






  45. This was the best potato soup I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to make more.






  46. I made 1;2 the recipe which sometimes causes problems. I did add a lot more salt and pepper. Also boiled the potatoes first so they were soft. Then used wondra to thicken. It was yummy

  47. So simple, so delicious! What a delightful dinner on a ❄ evening ❤






  48. Yes, yes, it truly is the BEST potato soup recipe I’ve ever made. I have a large family and this is DELICIOUS! (Because some of us are slightly lactose intolerant, I used 3c. stock and 1c. milk.) LOVE!!






  49. This was truly amazing!






  50. Absolutely tell best potato soup I ever tried . Hands down a keeper.