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It’s no secret that I love my soups in the cold months. I love brothy soups, chunky soups, soups with noodles and creamy soups.

Lately, people shy away from creamy soups thinking that they are packed with flour or heavy cream as a thickener. Sometimes those ingredients are called for but I’ve discovered that potato can act as a great thickening agent for your soup.

The first time I discovered this method is when I made my clam chowder which included grated potatoes. The starches from the potatoes are what thickens your soup and the proof is realized when you finally puree your soup. You get a thick, velvety soup without the starch of the flour.

Before I forget, I still finish off my soups with a splash of heavy cream.

Cream of Vegetable Soup

1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 head of broccoli, broken into pieces (1 cup)
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
3 medium potatoes, grated
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs of thyme
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
7 cups of chicken/vegetable stock
splash of heavy cream

  1. Place a large pot on your stove to medium high heat. Add your butter, onions, carrots, celery, broccoli, garlic, some salt, bay leaves, thyme and parsley. Saute and stir occasionally for 5-10 minutes on medium heat.
  2. Grate your potatoes into the pot and stir to mix in well. When the mixture starts to become pasty, add a little stock to prevent anything from burning. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
  3. Add your stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium, cover with a lid and simmer for 45 minutes.
  4. Uncover and simmer for another 15 minutes. Remove bay leaves.
  5. Take off the heat and puree your soup with your hand blender ( I like leaving some vegetables in tact).
  6. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and add a splash of cream. Garnish with parsley and serve.

22 Responses

  1. Veg soup is probably my favourite and I much prefer thick soups too!! I make mine much the same except I use courgette too!!

  2. Soooouuup. Mmmmmm. I agree that the potato is a great way to help thicken it up and save yourself from putting on *too* much of an extra winter fat layer.

  3. Hey, what’s wrong with cream? :P

    One time I used a bit of silken tofu in the puree for potato-leek soup, and it helped cream things up too. But truly, is there anything a potato *can’t* do?

  4. Sounds great Peter but I always have some questions to ask. If you don’t grate the potato and saute it with the other vegetables won’t it work as a thickener?

  5. I’m with you – any kind of soup; any time!
    Did you know that you can also use rice as a thickener? Cook it and puree it, then stir in. Different flavors for different soups!

  6. Lorraine, courgettes would work too, it’s a liberal soup, use what veggies are at hand.

    Pixie (luv the name), soups here are made in big batches too.

    Jenn, simple is often best.

    Anne Marie, the grated potato doesn’t have the pasty-ness flour gives one.

    Heather nothing wrong with cream, I now use it elsewhere more! lol

    Ivy, it won’t work as well. By grating the potato, you’re exposing more of the starches and that’s your thickener.

  7. A perfect warming soup for a cold Canadian winter. I’m making soup tonight too – an Indian toor dal pumpkin soup.

  8. I love sopas, Peter! Just any kind… and I love veggies and Potatoes, of course… easy things to make me happy!
    Yours looks rica, rica!

  9. Peter, looks like we both had soup for dinner last night! You liked the color of mine, and I definitely like the color of yours. It looks very appetizing! That spoon looks like its’ heading right for my mouth, and believe me, I’m ready for it!

  10. This is such an “educational day” for me. Two new things so far, your cream of veggie soup and haggis!
    Texture looks nice and silky!

  11. Hi Peter, what a great idea – using potato as a thickener. There’s nothing like a bowl of hot soup in winter.

  12. Hello Peter, your soup looks delicious & so tempting, we have a couple of cooler days coming up and this looks just the ticket :-)

  13. Hi Peter, The soup looks great, I would love a bowl of it! You are right about grating some of the veg, that always helps to thicken the soup! Did you enjoy it with some crusty bread. It is made for that, I think!

  14. Your cream of vegetable soup would have gone down so well last week. I was eating from a can….blah! I hope you froze some for the future cravings!!

  15. This terrific soup would hit the spot today, with the wind chill we’re having. Nice idea for me to use up some veg I have laying around!

  16. Sounds really good and comforting! We’re having cool rainy weather down here in Southern California so I might be making some soup this week, too!

  17. I need a really good soup right now and I think you can help me :)
    This kind of creammy vegetable soup is one of my confort foods. I’ve never used so many ingredients though so I’ll give it a try!
    All these complementary flavors…very nice indeed.

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