Creamy Mashed Potato and Leek Soup

This Creamy Mashed Potato and Leek Soup is a perfect recipe to use up the leftover mashed potatoes from the holidays. Fresh herbs, cream, and loads of Parmesan cheese make this Creamy Mashed Potato and Leek Soup the perfect day after Thanksgiving lunch.

Any holiday that revolves around food is going to automatically become my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are holidays we celebrate that really seem to pack a punch in the food department. It’s a beautiful excuse to get together with friends and family, break bread, and just enjoy all those holiday meals that we don’t typically have time for during the rest of the year. Fall and winter are definitely my favorite seasons too. The cold weather opens the doors to eat all things full fat, warm, and earthy. This Creamy Mashed Potato and Leek Soup is the beautiful pictures of all those things I love wrapped in one.

How do you make a creamy potato soup?

One of the secrets to this super creamy mashed potato and leek soup is the use of leftover mashed potatoes. Leftover mashed potatoes are a perfect vehicle for this kind of soup since they’ve already been thickened with butter and cheese, then loosened by boiling and baking. You can use any kind of mashed potato recipe you love. I’ve been in a creative space lately of utilizing leftovers and transforming them into a new meal. So I used this recipe for my Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes as the base. I think this is coming from my deep desire to be on Chopped. Haha!

The brilliance of using mashed potatoes for a potato and leek soup is that the mashed potatoes act the same way as a thickener. So instead of adding corn starch or a powdered potato starch, you are utilizing these leftover mashed potatoes as the potato starch. They break down and become a smooth thickening agent for your creamy potato soup. This would work well with a baked potato soup as well. You would not need as many quartered potatoes and it would lend to a very creamy potato soup without blending.

What is a leek and how do you eat them?

Leeks are essentially large green onions. You’ll find this out very quickly as you cut into them and start to tear up as you would with a typical onion. Leeks have a slightly sweeter and more mild flavor than a standard onion, which is why you’ll generally find both in a leek and potato soup. The slight variance in onion flavor pairs well with the fresh herbs and hearty potatoes. Unlike green onions, which you can eat in it’s entirety, a leek’s stalk is the only part consumed.

How to prepare a leek:

• Cut the white end about a half of a inch.
• Remove the outer layer of skin which is typically damaged or dirty.
• Cut again where the white starts to turn to dark green and the leaves start to peel away. The darker the green in the “leaf” part the more fibrous it becomes. Eating the green will not hurt you, it’s just a bit tougher.
• Then you can cut the leek in half or in round dices as you would a green onion.
• Loosen with your fingers in a colander while running under cold water to remove the excess dirt.

Watch how to make Creamy Mashed Potato and Leek Soup

Did you make this Creamy Mashed Potato and Leek Soup?

Stop throwing out those leftovers and transform your holiday mashed potatoes into a delicious, warm, and healthy potato and leek soup! I would love if after you try this recipe, because I know you will, go ahead and rate the recipe with 5 stars! Leave me any comments or questions below and I’ll be happy to answer them. Then head over to Instagram and tag me in your stories @theKatieMChase and show me how you’ve made the recipe.