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This Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup is quick and easy to make and turns out creamy and flavorful – a great way to utilize the winter bounty of leeks and potatoes.
» You might also like this delicious Popcorn Soup Recipe and Mashed Potato Squash.
I love making soup in the Instant Pot because the pressure enables the rapid transformation and melding of flavors that you usually can only achieve with hours of simmering on the stovetop.
While Potato Leek Soup doesn’t need a ton of time for the flavors to develop, you’re going to get a really flavorful and delicious soup in just 10 minutes with the Instant Pot, and it would take at least 40 minutes for the potatoes to cook on the stovetop. So it’s a huge time saver.
Why Use An Instant Pot
The Instant Pot is one of the most useful kitchen appliances you can buy, because it drastically cuts down on the cooking time for developing flavors in soups and stews, getting tough cuts of meat tender, and even baking a cheesecake. And there are many accessories that will help you get more out of your Instant Pot.
If you don’t have one yet, check out our guide on which one to buy. You can also check out our Instant Pot page for more information.
Ingredients You Need
- Butter – You can use ghee, unsalted, or salted butter, as you wish
- Leeks – Remove the tough greens at the top and chop only the light colored, more tender stem
- Potatoes – I use russet potatoes and I peel them before cubing. Peeling does remove some of the nutrients from the potato, but this soup is really best without peels.
- Vegetable or Chicken stock – You can use a boxed vegetable or chicken broth, or mix water with a cube of chicken bouillon.
- Cream or half and half – This is optional. The soup is really creamy on its own, without the cream.
- Seasonings – Salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaf
- For garnish – Crumbled bacon, green onion and paprika for garnish
How to Make Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup
This soup takes just 15 minutes to make, but there will also be some time needed to bring the Instant Pot up to temperature. You can cut down on that time by adding hot chicken stock, rather than cold. This will allow the Instant Pot to pressurize faster.
Turn on Sauté mode on the Instant Pot. Melt the butter in the pot. Add the leeks. Sauté for 3-5 minutes, just to soften the leeks, not brown them. Turn off sauté mode after 5 minutes (any longer and it will get too hot). Add the salt, pepper and garlic.
Add the potatoes, broth, thyme and bay leaf. Secure the lid and set to cook for 6 minutes on high pressure. Do a quick pressure release.
Remove the thyme sprig and bay leaf.
Using an immersion blender, puree the soup to a smooth texture. Return to a low heat and add the cream. Heat through before serving.
Tips & Notes for Making Potato Leek Soup
- It’s possible to make this soup vegetarian or vegan, by replacing the butter with olive oil, using vegetable broth, and omitting the cream.
- The soup is really creamy on its own and doesn’t necessarily need the added cream. If you want to save the calories, you can choose not to add the cream at all. If you love a creamy soup, add up to 1/2 cup to suit your taste.
- The immersion blender is the easiest way to blend this soup. Blending for 3-5 minutes will yield a super silky soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can puree the soup in a blender (leaving the vent whole open at the top because the soup is hot!)
Can You Freeze Potato Leek Soup?
Yes, you can freeze this soup, but you want to freeze it before you add the cream, if you’re planning to. The cream can congeal when frozen and it won’t reincorporate into the soup when it’s defrosted. So omit the cream and you can add it in after you’ve reheated the soup, if you want to.
The soup will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week. If frozen, it will keep for a month or longer in the freezer.
To reheat it, slowly bring it up to temperature in a pot on the stovetop, cook for 5 minutes on high pressure in the Instant Pot, or microwave for 3-5 minutes.
How To Reheat
To reheat it, slowly bring it up to temperature in a pot on the stovetop, cook for 5 minutes on high pressure in the Instant Pot, or microwave for 3-5 minutes.
Other Great Soups Recipes to Try
Try one of these delicious soups as a side dish or a main dish. The best thing about soup is how versatile it is.
- Butternut Squash Sausage Soup
- Instant Pot Caramelized Carrot Soup
- Delicious Chicken Rice Soup
- Rich & Delicious Instant Pot Beef Stew
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Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 leeks tough greens removed, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 pound potatoes peeled and cubed
- 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 sprig fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 cup cream or half and half optional
- Crumbled bacon, green onion, and paprika, for garnish
Instructions
- Turn on Saute mode on the Instant Pot. Melt the butter in the pot. Add the leeks. Saute for 3-5 minutes, just to soften the leeks, not brown them. Turn off saute mode after 5 minutes (any longer and it will get too hot). Add the salt, pepper and garlic.
- Add the potatoes, broth, thyme and bay leaf. Secure the lid and set to cook for 6 minutes on high pressure. Do a quick pressure release.
- Remove the thyme sprig and bay leaf.
- Using an immersion blender, puree the soup to a smooth texture. Return to a low heat and add the cream. Heat through before serving.
Equipment Needed
Video
Notes
If you use a low-sodium broth, you may need to add additional salt to taste.
Nutrition
Other Potato Main Dish Recipes To Try
- Pulled Pork Gnocchi
- Loaded Baked Potato Casserole
- Rich & Delicious Instant Pot Stew
- Meatballs & Mashed Potatoes
- Pulled Pork Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Creamy & Delicious Gnocchi Carbonara
Click for Even More Potato Main Dish Recipes
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Laura is a home cook, with 25 years experience behind the stove, who spends an extraordinary amount of time in the kitchen cooking. She loves making new recipes and finding wonderful new things to eat, both at home or abroad. She spends a lot of time researching, crafting, and perfecting her recipes and currently has a cookbook in development.
I love how fast and easy this soup is! And , of course, it’s delicious too!
I love potato leek soup and it turned out delicious in the instant pot… adding to my recipe rotation! Yum!
This is my favourite soup. I am definitely going to have to try making it in the instant pot.
What a great flavor combination and I’ve never considered that the Instant Pot enhances the flavors like it would if you were to simmer it for hours on the stove. I might just start making all my soups in the Instant Pot now!
It definitely enhances the flavor, and it’s so quick!
This soup looks awesome! What a great use of leeks!
This is one of my favourite soups on earth. So good!
Probably my most favourite soup ever! So tasty and fulfilling -definitely giving this recipe a go!
I love creamy leek soup! It’s so flavorful and comforting, yet also has delicious fresh flavors of spring!
One of my favorite ways to enjoy leeks is in a creamy soup like this, so good!
This looks so delicious and very tasty! My family and I are going to enjoy this soup! So excited to try this!
Laura, this is the second Instant Pot recipe of yours that I made today and I am so pleased. This soup was perfect! I used crispy prosciutto for topping because I had that on hand. Yum!
Another of your delicious recipes to be added to my rotation! (:the other recipe was your pork and sauerkraut in the IP:))))
So glad you’re enjoying the recipes, Jean. I love this soup too. Crispy prosciutto sounds prefect!
Very Nice recipe — thoughtful directions.Thank you!
We are glad that you liked the recipe.