If you are in a hurry and need a flavorful and comforting dinner on the table in less than half an hour, then look no further than this Instant Pot Potato Soup with Cheddar and Leek (or of course use any other electric pressure cooker you have on hand).
We are early eaters. My husband does that intermittent fasting thing so we end up eating by like 5.00-5.30 every night without fail (I however do not. I am firmly in the bank of sneaking chocolate after the kids have gone to bed, so it just doesn’t fit with my closet chocolate eating lifestyle).
You may know I am staying with my parents in Australia for a couple of months at the moment, and they have absolutely no concept of time…so we end up being out-and-about and rushing to get dinner on the table by 7pm. This apparently doesn’t work with my littles bellies, so I have been playing around with some recipes in the Instant Pot to get dinner on the table ASAP.
I have made this Instant Pot Potato Soup with Cheddar and Leek a million times before, but always in the slow cooker. Let me just say it actually tastes better from the pressure cooker, and being ready in 25 minutes makes it the perfect weeknight meal.
My 17 year old brother told me it was ‘seriously the best soup I have ever eaten’, and then asked me to show him how to make it. Let me point out that he is a typical 17 year old and normally grunts as a thanks at dinner before skulking off to play on his phone – so I take an actual spoken compliment from him in the highest regard!! We have a tradition in our family where mum cooks us our favorite meal for our birthday dish, and he even asked could this be his new birthday dish too (at this point I realise he may actually be trying to wind mum up, but I am taking the compliment as my own anyway).
Anyway I digress. The soup is delicious, comforting and on the table in 25 minutes from start to finish. You can’t say no to that. If you are looking for some more pressure cooker meals then look no further:
- Instant Pot Turkey and Sweet Potato Chilli (plus stovetop alternative)
- Instant Pot Potato Soup with Cheddar and Leek
- Super Moist Pressure Cooker Whole Chicken
Happy eating. Be sure to leave a comment if you try it out and love it as much as we do 🙂
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 leeks cleaned and thinly sliced, white and light green
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 leaves bay
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 5 cups vegetable broth make your own
- 4-5 cups medium gold potatoes peeled and diced, I used yukon
- 1 1/2 cups cream or half and half
- 1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
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Using the sauté function, melt the butter in the instant pot. Once melted, add the sliced leeks and salt and sauté until soft. Add the crushed garlic; saute for 30 seconds and turn off the sauté function
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Remove a small portion of the leeks and set aside for serving
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To the leek mixture in the pot add in the thyme, oregano, bay leaves, white wine, broth, and potatoes. Give it all a good stir and set to high pressure for 10 minutes
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Once complete, quick release and open the pot. Remove the bay leaves, add in the cream and use a stick immersion blender to puree the soup until it reaches the consistency of your liking
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Set the instant pot to warm and heat the soup through
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Once hot serve up with a sprinkle of extra sautéed leeks, some crispy bacon and a sprinkle of cheese
That was delicious! The only thing I changed was that I didn’t use any dairy. I sautéed the leeks with Earth Balance spread and added about 4 oz. of Kite Hill ricotta at the end when I blended everything with my immersion blender.
Oh yum, I love your variations Pam – especially the use of ricotta!!
I swapped out oregano for parsley and used my home grown lime thyme.. amazing how fast and delicious
You know, I have never heard of lime thyme, but now I have to search for some, it sounds amazing!!
I made this soup tonight….exactly as written, and it is delish! Perfect for the cold rainy day we’ve had. I was surprised at how fast it went together. Thanks for helping me love my instant pot.
Oh yay I am so glad to hear this Kristen!! The Instant Pot can be a hard nut to crack, but once you have a few staple recipes down it becomes such a handy tool to have in the kitchen. This soup is one of our favorites, so happy you enjoyed it 🙂
This is amazing! I have a love/hate relationship with my IP. This recipe had us whispering sweet nothings to one another. I didn’t have white wine, so I subbed diluted white wine vinegar, which gave it a lovely tang. And I don’t own an immersion wand, but a few pulses in the blender did the job. Bravo!
Hahaha I love ‘had us whispering sweet nothings to one another‘ 🙂 The instant pot can be a bit tricky to start off with (I definitely had my fair share of total fails), but once you get the hang of it, it is such a time saver in the kitchen!! I love your idea to sub out with white wine vinegar, I have to try that next time we don’t have white wine on hand, very clever.
I made this last night and it’s definitely a keeper! It was a bit thin but that’s easy enough to fix next time. I’ll just watch the potato/liquid ratio. I didn’t have white wine so I used extra broth. I only cooked it for 8 minutes because I diced the potatos instead of cubing them by accident. We had it with garlic bread and everyone loved it! Thanks!
Oh, one note – you don’t mention to remove the bay leaves and thyme stems – some people might not know to do that. 🙂
Thanks for popping back to leave a comment Angel, I am so glad the soup worked out well for you 🙂 I have updated the recipe to make sure people know to remove the bay leaves, sometimes it is so easy to forget to include things that come second nature to me!!
With some ingredients missing, improvisation was necessary. In lieu of potatoes, yams. With no fresh or dried thyme, I left it out. Also only had 4c broth, chicken, not vegetable, so added 1 cup water. I did however open a bottle of white wine for this!
Sautéing seems unnecessary with the instant pot, so everything went in the pot, stirred, and turned the pot on. While it was cooking, got a couple of slices of bacon also cooked and chopped, cheese grated (cheddar and Monterey Jack).
One thing to note: The bay leaves had to be taken out. And I presume the small amount of cheese is more for garnish than as an ingredient, which makes the title of the soup a little misleading.
However. It was simply delicious! We each had seconds and there was enough left over for two 4c servings and one 2c. This is great because my 99 year old mother in law needs nutrition.
Thank you.
Thanks for popping back to leave a comment Anitta! I love that you are providing some much needed nourishment for your mother in law 🙂
I love to sauté my onions/garlic etc in the Instant Pot before bringing everything to pressure, as it gets them all nice and caramelized, which brings another dimension of flavor to the dish. Totally not necessary, and a step you can easily leave out if that’s your preference. I don’t like my potato and leek soup too cheesy, but I think that little bit of cheese needs to be in there to round out the overall flavor of the soup, which is why I included it in the title. As always you can feel free to add more 🙂
Fantastic recipe! I was in a hurry (unexpected, unannounced visit from the in-laws), so I forgot the cream at the end and it was still utterly delicious. Thank you!
Oh yay I am so glad to hear it 🙂 And so glad it still worked out without the cream!! Thanks for taking the time to come back and comment
Mine turned out really thin. I even used an extra potato, though I used red ones because that’s what I had. I followed the recipe exactly otherwise. Any ideas?
Oh no, I am so sorry it didn’t work out Hannah! The only thing I can think of is if you used low-fat cream, maybe thats a bit thinner? But it really shouldn’t make that much of a difference! I have made this so many times, with different types of potatoes and even once with whole milk and it has never been too thin…were your potatoes really little? I actually have this soup on the menu plan for this week, so I will measure out the potatoes in cups and update the recipe to reflect this, so it’s a more solid measurement.
A good argument for quantities by WEIGHT rather than number of leeks (which can vary considerably in size) or potatoes (which can also vary considerably, even if of the same type).
I agree (in some part) Brian, and I will update the recipe to reflect this at some point. If I were baking something, which required scientific measurement, then that would definitely be my approach. However, I like to try and keep my recipes easy and versatile, (as in ‘throw in a couple of potatoes’ or whatever you have on hand etc) not stringent, and this soup has worked for me MANY a time using different sizes and shapes of produce.
This soup is perfect for cold days. Delicious
Thanks Katrin 🙂 We love it!
Is it really 3 tbs of leeks? That seems like such a small amount for that many servings!
Oh no no it is 3 whole leeks. Sorry, I recently updated something and it has changed a few of my recipes – time to go through and check every one. Thanks for pointing that one out.
You got me at potatoes. Love potatoes. They are my comfort food. Never made a potato soup though.
Oh me too 🙂 Every time I used to go to our family friends house growing up they would always make extra potatoes just for me 🙂
Thanks for a great warming soup. Can you use something else instead of cream, thanks?
Hi Bintu, I am sure dairy free milk would work well – the potatoes would probably be creamy enough that you wouldn’t need to thicken it with flour.
I really need an instapot, I can’t believe this cooks in 10 minutes! Holy Moly!
I know right!! I was dubious at first, but now I use mine for everything 🙂
Gosh that is one seriously gorgeous looking soup! All my favourite comfort food ingredients too. 🙂
Oh thank you Elizabeth 🙂 I know, I have been enjoying all the comfort foods lately with the cold weather!!
I need to add an instant pot to my kitchen collection!
There’s always something isn’t there 🙂 I swore I wasn’t getting anything else, but the instant pot is life changing, even just for cooking brown rice quickly 🙂