Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup is a classic, simple, delicately flavored soup. My family has enjoyed my Grandpa’s Potato Leek Soup recipe for years. Now I’m sharing it with you! Enjoy this delicious creamy, but light, pressure cooker Potato Leek Soup with some nice crusty bread for a wonderful meal!
Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup
Often times the recipes that we remember from childhood are the simplest ones. Our family recipes are some of my greatest treasures. Each one has a story. and brings to life all of the wonderful memories from the good old days.
My Nana and Grandpa were great cooks. I love to make their recipes. Today I’m sharing one of my Grandpa’s recipes with you. It is a very simple Potato Leek soup that I tweaked just a little so you can easily make it in your Instant Pot electric pressure cooker (because I just love making soup in my IP!).
This is one of the recipes from Grandpa’s side of the family. He said it’s a Welsh recipe. I’m not sure, but have seen references to that. I think like many recipes, each region has their own version and claims it as their own.
One thing’s for sure, it is a simple and tasty soup. It is very good hot, though in the Summer we would often eat it chilled, then it is called vichyssoise.
This soup is easy enough to make on the stove, but I prefer making it in my pressure cooker. Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup is easy to prepare, and doesn’t take long at all to cook and get the leeks super tender. I hope you like it!
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Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup is a classic, elegant, simple soup with a delicate flavor of leeks and potatoes. Easy to make in your electric pressure cooker.
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 Tbsp Butter
- 4-5 large Leeks, about 5-6 cups chopped (cleaned and sliced into half-moon shapes. Cut off the dark green part, trimming to the part where the color is a pale green)
- 2 cloves Garlic, pressed or minced
- 2 Tbsp Flour
- 5 cups Chicken Broth (or vegetable broth)
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp White Pepper (or black)
- 1 lb Gold Potatoes, cubed
- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg (optional)
- 3/4 cup Half and Half (or heavy cream, or for lower fat use milk)
- Chopped Chives (or parsley)
- Sour Cream
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Press the Sauté button on the Instant Pot. When the display reads 'Hot', add the oil and butter.
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Add the leeks and stir. Cook until soft, stirring occasionally. It's fine if they brown a little.
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Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant, stirring frequently.
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Sprinkle the flour over the leeks and stir. Cook for a minute to get the raw taste out of the flour.
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Stir in the broth. Be sure to dissolve the flour and scrape the bottom of the pot so you don't get a "burn" issue.
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Add the bay leaf, salt, pepper, and the potatoes, nutmeg. Stir.
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Put the lid on the pot and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
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Press the Manual (or Pressure Cook) button, and the + or - button to choose 7 minutes.
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When the cooking cycle has ended, let the pot naturally release the pressure for 15 minutes. Then manually release the remaining steam.
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When the pin in the lid drops, open it and stir the soup. Remove the bay leaf. Then use an immersion blender to puree it. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can use a blender, pureeing the soup in small batches very carefully.
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Stir in the half and half.
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Taste and adjust salt, if needed.
Garnish with chopped chives and sour cream.
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Serve hot or chilled.
Adapted from my Grandpa's recipe.
Resources to Make Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup Recipe and More
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Ryan
I can’t highlight the 5 stars so that’s what I’m giving this soup. I have made potato leek soup for many years and thought it was excellent, until I made this recipe. The flavors blend well together and no added seasoning is needed. Cook times are spot on. I added the nutmeg and that made the soup so delicious. I used peeled russets and heavy cream. Being very lazy, I didn’t want to use my immersion blender and used a potato masher instead. Not one clump of potato in the pot. Thanks, Sandy.
Dawn
Thank you Ryan for the terrific idea of using a potato masher! That is a lot easier than cleaning out my blender. And an immersion blender is now on my Christmas wish list!
Myrna
Where I live bay leaf is available ground, then you don’t have to remember to take it out.
Alixandra Hice
I made this lovely recipe tonight for dinner. My husband (who isn’t a fan of puréed soup) ate three bowls and my mother loved it as well. I had two bowls myself. Thank you so much for sharing your Grandfather’s yummy soup with us. Five stars!
Cris
The soup was delicious! Let me say upfront I am not a novice cook. Once the soup depressurized I removed the lid and not thinking, being in a hurry, whatever was going through my head at the moment I forgot to take out the bay leaf. AUUGHHH YES! I did it! I plopped my handy submersion blender in the sop and pureed away. Once done I saw a straggly piece of it and realized what I had done. I carefully spooned through my soup to make sure I didn’t have any other big pieces. It’s a wives tale that they are toxic to eat. Since I had basically crushed the bay leaf into small pieces I was fine with that. We all have had our moments. I tasted the soup and it was still very good. At this point I realized I did not have any milk, cream, etc to add. (I was obviously having a bad day.) I did spy a package of boursin garlic and herb cheese in my fridge and added that. I remembered seeing it used in a soup on another blog I was reading. All in all the soup was absolutely perfect, even with my oops and blunders.
Sandy
Hi Cris, yes, we all have those days! Obviously you know your way around the kitchen. Your ability to find a tasty substitution was so good! Love it!
Vanessa
mmmm, mmmm! This soup is soooo yummy! Even my husband loves it and generally he doesn’t like soup at all. It’s become a must make recipe in our house for sure! I made it pretty much as is, only I only used 3 large leeks, (because that’s how my grocery store sells them, in bunches of 3s), but it was still extremely tasty!
Dan
I have tried this recipe three times now and every time the instant pot says “burn”….don’t know what I am doing wrong but this just won’t work for me. Is the flour necessary?
Sandy
I’m sorry about that. Are you scraping the pot very well and completely dissolving the flour? If you are, then I would add the flour after pressure cooking. It could be that your pot runs hotter than normal. There are so many versions of the IP out now, who knows?! After pressure cooking and releasing the pressure, mix the flour with an equal amount of very soft butter. Turn on the sauté setting and as soon as the soup starts to simmer, stir in the flour mixture. Then turn off the pot and keep stirring for a little bit.
Joseph Pierce
Sounds good what about the nutmeg? Also, does it freeze well? I have the 10 at and plan to make some ahead of time for winter.. freeze without cream, I would have to guess. Thanks…
Sandy
I don’t think Grandpa used nutmeg, though I’m sure it would be nice in there. Yes, you can freeze it without the cream and add it after reheating.