There are a lot of excellent potato soup recipes out there. Many are loaded with heavy cream, cream cheese, and bacon. While those are absolutely delicious, I wanted to make a potato soup that was a little bit light, but still full of flavor.

A heavy hand when adding garlic is the key to this potato soup. This pungent ingredient is added to the soup in different places:

Infuse the broth with garlic
Add 2 heads of garlic to the soup
Top with pan-fried garlic chips

I also use leeks instead of onions for their more subtle flavor, allowing the garlic to shine. However, yellow onions would be a fine substitute.

Recipe

Very garlic potato soup

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Prep Time10

Total Time50

Calories

Servings bowls

Ingredients

Soup Base

3 tablespoon unsalted butter olive oil for dairy-free
3 cloves garlic
1 leek white and green parts

Soup

6-7 cups broth
2 heads garlic
3 bay leaves
1.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 lbs russet potatoes peeled, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 lb red potatoes unpeeled, cut into ½ inch cubes
2 teaspoon fresh thyme

Garnishes

¼ cup fresh chives
Black pepper
4-6 cloves garlic for chips
3 tablespoon oil for chips

Instructions

Prep

Chop the leeks, peel russet potatoes, and cut the all potatoes into ½ inch cubes or so (no need to be exact).
Separate cloves from 1 head of garlic, peel and chop up 3 of those, to be used in the base. Peel and slice up 4-6 cloves (to make chips). Cut the tops off the other heads of garlic so the tops of the cloves are exposed (for the broth).
Strip thyme from stems.

Make the base

In a large pot, melt the butter. Add leeks and cook until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook just for a minute or two, until it smells wonderful.

Flavor broth & simmer

Add broth, garlic heads (with the tops cut off), bay leaves and salt. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes.
Add potatoes, partially cover the pot and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
Remove the garlic heads and squeeze the garlic onto a plate, using tongs. Add the squeezed garlic back into the soup. Add in thyme.
Remove the bay leaves. If you want some potato chunks in the soup, use a slotted spoon to remove the desired amount. Then puree the soup, and add the potatoes back in.
Taste and add salt or pepper if necessary. Add more broth to thin the soup, if needed. Top with chives, pepper and garlic chips.

Garlic Chips

Use a small frying pan and cover the bottom in a layer of oil, just enough to mostly cover the sliced garlic. Heat the oil to hot, but not smoking. Add sliced garlic to hot oil and swirl / push around to cook them evenly. After about 1 or 2 minutes, they will start to turn a light gold, watch them, because in seconds they will turn golden and after that they can turn dark gold and start to get bitter. Remove from pan at the light to meidum gold stage, then cool on paper towels.

Serve

Top soup with chives and garlic chips and serve.

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Nutrition for Garlic & Potato Soup, by Ingredient

Recipe notes

Frying garlic: if you 'burn' garlic it turns bitter and has an off taste. I've found this happens when they get a dark gold color, which is normally wonderful on baked goods or cookies. But not so on fried garlic. It also takes seconds to start to burn, and I've found that the time it takes for me to scoop them all out of the pan, some have turned bitter. To get around that, when they are done, I tilt the pan to get them all on one side and scoop them out all at once with a slotted spoon.
Garlic on your hands: If you wash your hands after handling raw garlic, or rub them on a lemon, you can get rid of the smell. I've found the real problem happens when you combine garlic and oil (hello, frying!) and get it on your hands. That seems to make it hard to get rid of. The website, garlicmatters.com has an interesting solution: make a scrub with sea salt and baking soda for your hands.
Thinning the soup: If you have leftovers, this soup will be much thicker the next day. Keep some extra broth on hand to thin it, or use water.
Freeze: this soup freezes wonderfully (as most pureed soups do).

Using 2 types of potatoes

Russet potatoes are known for their starchy texture that makes a wonderful baked potato or fluffy mashed potatoes. These work perfectly in a soup, pureeing into a creamy base.

Red potatoes, as well as yukon gold, hold their shape when simmered in a soup. Using either works well in this recipe. While some of these potatoes will be pureed in, the remaining ones have a great texture when added back in.

No dairy

Dairy is an easy way to make a soup rich, creamy, and delicious. It often shows up in soup recipes as milk, heavy cream, or cream cheese.

However, I really enjoy using vegetables to make that creamy base. I think it adds a lot of flavor (and it's a fun challenge).

Potatoes are routinely used as a soup thickener without muddying the flavor with flour. Because of this, they are also perfect for a hearty soup without the need for dairy.

If you want to add a splash of heavy cream or sour cream in at the end, it would be tasty. Cheese added to each bowl before serving makes for a nice loaded potato soup flavor.

Very garlic potato soup (without milk or cream)

Recipe