This homemade Instant Pot potato leek soup is made with kale and Cheddar cheese. It’s quick and easy and much tastier and healthier than the canned stuff. This soup recipe is gluten-free and vegetarian-friendly.
Forget about the canned stuff! Homemade leek and potato soup is incredibly easy to make and it tastes ten times better than what you’d get out of a tin or a carton. It’s especially quick to cook with the help of your Instant Pot pressure cooker.
INSTANT POT POTATO LEEK SOUP WITH A TWIST
Our version of everyone’s favourite soup has a little twist. We added kale for extra greens and some grated Cheddar cheese to our Instant Pot potato leek soup for that delicious savoury, cheesy flavour. Don’t worry, you can certainly omit the cheese and it will still taste delicious. It’s vegetarian and gluten-free, and rather nutritious.
This potato leek soup freezes well and is a great recipe for batch cooking and meal prepping ahead of time.
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT POTATO LEEK SOUP
Cleaning the leek – If your leek has some grit on it or inside the leave, the best way to clean it is to slice the leek in half, going lengthways, and then rinse any dirt or grit under running tap water. You should be able to see it better when it’s cut in halves.
You will find the full list of ingredients, instructions and a nutritional breakdown below but here are the basic steps.
Step 1. Saute the leeks and butter until softened.
Step 2. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir and pop the lid on top. Pressure cook on HIGH for 10 minutes with 5 minutes natural pressure release.
Step 3. Add the final few ingredients and puree the soup to smooth texture.
SOUP VARIATIONS
Vegetables: White potatoes can be replaced with sweet potatoes or even carrots and parsnips. Kale can be replaced with spinach, chard or collard greens. What we love is that you can’t tell this soup has any kale, which is great if your kids or partners are fussy with their greens.
Dairy-free/Whole30/vegan version: Replace butter with olive oil or coconut oil. If you can handle butter or ghee, those would be better. Don’t worry about adding the cheese in the end and process the soup as is. You can add a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes, which have a slightly cheesy flavour to them. A little coconut cream would also work well.
MORE INSTANT POT SOUP RECIPES
Instant Pot Broccoli Soup With Gremolata
Instant Pot Borscht (Beet) Soup
Pressure Cooker Butternut Squash Soup
Creamy Potato & Corn Chowder With Dill Pickle
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Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup With Kale
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
Description
Homemade Instant Pot potato leek with a healthy twist of kale. This is so much better than the canned or boxed potato soups and is so quick and easy with your pressure cooker. This soup is vegetarian and gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 1.2–1.4 oz of butter (35–40 g)
- 2 large leeks, sliced roughly (white and pale green parts, about 0.8 lb / 400 g)
- A generous pinch of salt
- 1.3 lb / 600 g white potatoes, peeled and diced into large cubes
- 3 large handfuls of kale leaves (about 3.5 oz. / 100 g)
- 3 cloves garlic, diced roughly
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard or yellow
- 1 teaspoon of lemon zest (reserve half for garnish)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1.5 Litre vegetable stock (or water + 3 x vegetable stock cube)
To finish
- 2.8 oz. / 80 g cheddar cheese, grated
- 1/4 cup cream (half & half, optional)
- Juice of 1/2 lemon + the rest of the lemon zest (see above)
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
To serve
- Chopped fresh parsley
- Extra black pepper
Instructions
- Press the Sauté key on the Instant Pot (it should say Normal, 30 mins). Add the butter and let it melt while you finish preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- Add the leeks and stir through with the butter. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring a few times.
- Add the potatoes, kale and garlic and stir through, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the cheese. Stir to combine and press the Keep Warm/Cancel button.
- Place and lock the lid, make sure the steam releasing handle is pointing to Sealing. Press Manual, High Pressure, and set the timer to 10 minutes. After 3 beeps the pressure cooker will start going.
- Once the timer goes off, allow the pressure to release for 5 minutes and then use the quick release method before opening the lid.
- Add the cheese and stir to melt through. Add the cream (if using), lemon juice and the rest of the lemon zest. Process the soup into a puree. Option 1: Use an immersion stick blender directly in the pot. Option 2: Transfer the soup, together with the vegetables, to a blender or a food processor in 2-3 batches. Make sure to only fill up the blender half way, maybe three quarters, as the mixture will expand and move up the sides while blending. You will save yourself the mess!
- Once smooth, stir in the parsley. Serve the soup in bowls sprinkled with extra parsley and black pepper.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 339
- Sugar: 9.3 g
- Sodium: 1248.4 mg
- Fat: 16.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 9.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 42.5 g
- Fiber: 5.3 g
- Protein: 9.4 g
- Cholesterol: 43.9 mg
Keywords: Leeks, Cheddar, Kale, Potatoes
SAVE THIS POTATO LEEK SOUP TO PINTEREST
This soup was excellent. Everyone in my household loved it. The lemon juice and zest really stand out and make the soup taste fresh. I made the recipe as written with the following exceptions:
1. I gave the soup an extra cycle of cooking 10 minutes plus quick release after 5 minutes. I find with potato and leek soups it benefits the soup to cook it longer.
2. I added 1/2 a tin of leftover chickpeas as one of my household members is vegetarian and I like to add protein whenever possible. I did add the cheddar cheese and cream as well, as thankfully she is not vegan.
3. Since it was winter I did not add the parsley (We are not parsley fans).
I noticed that you have instant borst soup that I will make if I find all the ingredients. I’m thinking of using fresh cremini mushrooms instead of the dried ones. How much of this would you suggest.
★★★★★
This was our first homemade soup in the Instant Pot in 2020! Beyond delicious!!! My husband and I both had seconds, which is not typical of either of us.
Using everything I had on hand, I substituted green onions for the leeks and used cilantro in place of the parsley. I am pretty sure that I tossed in a little extra of everything called for, used an immersion blender, and listened to my husband saying, “mmm…mmm, this is SO good” multiple times while savoring each spoonful!
I mentioned that I was making soup again tomorrow night to which my husband retorted that it had better not be anything different than what he had just eaten! I think it is safe to say this recipe has found its way rather quickly to the top of our favorites list. Thank you and Happy New Year! ♥
★★★★★
Thanks so much for your lovely comment 🙂 Sounds like it was a hit.
This looks great and I intend to fix it tomorrow. Maybe you can explain one thing I’m confused by. In Step 5 it says “Add extra lemon juice…” but this is the first (and only) time that the instructions say to use lemon juice. Should I ignore the word “extra” here? or was some lemon juice supposed to be added earlier? Thanks! (I’ll go with guess #1 if I don’t hear from you, but I am wondering about it.)
Hey Millie, just checked the recipe and the extra referred to the lemon zest actually. So just juice of 1/2 lemon at the end is all you need.
Thanks! I made it last night, it was excellent.
I had a ton of potatoes, leeks and kale from my CSA box and this was a perfect way to use it up. I liked this soup a lot… it was a lot more green than your photo…more like pea soup but that didn’t affect flavor. I didnt blend the cheese in, rather i kist sorinkled some on top of my bowl. One day I added cubed sausage and another day I added shredded chicken and other meals I ate as is.
★★★★
Excellent soup, exactly like photo !
I am an inexperienced cook with a new 67 Quart Instant Pot. To saute, would I have to add more butter? .I am assuming the pots come in various sizes. If pots are different sizes, what size do you use for your recipes.- so I can calculate what amount of liquid I need. Thanks
If you follow a recipe in any size pot, you can use the same amount of ingredients if that makes sense. For sauteeing, you would just add the same amount of cooking oil. The size in our recipes is a standard 6-quart.
Made this today to use up some leeks and it is delicious! Thank you for the recipe. It is a keeper!
★★★★
Thanks Stephanie 🙂
This soup is really good. Thanks a lot
★★★★★
I just made this and it’s AMAZING. I left out the cheese and didn’t puree it at all– I like getting different flavors in each bite. My apartment smells incredible. Tonight’s dinner, with crusty bread. So delicious and warming!
Thanks Lauren! I also often leave my soups unpureed as I like the textures of different veggies. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I made this tonight and it was really delicious! The lemon made it very fresh and light tasting. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks April, glad you enjoyed it 🙂
This is a really bland soup. You should specify how to clean leeks to remove the grit. My spouse made this tonight and it was really gritty because the leeks weren’t washed thoroughly enough (and he did not know how to do it properly). Finally that photo must be photoshopped because our finished soup had a very unappealing greyish green color.
★★
Hey ZB, I’m not exactly sure why your soup didn’t work out. My partner loved it and said it was full of flavor. Was anything perhaps left out? Salt? As for the photo – it is not photoshopped, I can assure you. This is what the colour of my soup was. Perhaps your spouse only used the pale part of the leek and as you can see from the pictures, I used both pale and pale green, plus lots of kale, so it definitely wasn’t grey for me. I will add more details on how to clean the leeks for those that haven’t done it before. Thanks for the feedback!
I think he may have left something out. Mine looked very similar to the photo and tasted fabulous.
★★★★★