26 Potato Soup Recipes That Eat Like a Meal

Baked or boiled, mashed or fried, potatoes are the ultimate feel-good food. But when the cold weather hits, one dish in particular brings the most comfort—potato soup. It’s smooth, rich, creamy and so easy to customize. You can bulk up the soup with chickpeas, ground beef, vegetables or pierogies. You can top each bowl with shredded cheddar and crispy bacon, or whatever you add to your baked potatoes. Or, you can keep it simple like Ree Drummond did with this recipe. With hundreds of 5-star reviews, it’s a great place to start. (P.S. Many of these recipes require blending hot liquids, so we recommend investing in an immersion blender.)

Add Italian sausage, potatoes, kale and bacon to this week’s shopping list, so you can enjoy our version of the Olive Garden’s most popular soup all in the comfort of your own home.

You know Guy Fieri’s version will be packed with flavor! He specifically calls for applewood smoked bacon and mashes the spuds with the back of a spoon, leaving it a little bit chunky.

Warm spices and tart apples come together in a silky blend that’s both comforting and full of bold, unexpected flavor.

This twist on classic potato-leek soup mimics the flavors of ranch dressing thanks to loads of fresh herbs, a touch of sour cream and a splash of white wine vinegar. The homemade croutons add an exciting crunch to the light and creamy soup – especially because they’re coated with sharp white Cheddar and ranch seasoning. Everything comes together quickly for an easy weeknight dinner.

Introducing your new all-time-favorite garnish, cheesy potato tots. Frozen potato puffs are baked, sprinkled with shredded Cheddar cheese, baked again and then added to bowls of velvety rich soup along with a dollop of sour cream, crispy bacon and chives.

With just a handful of ingredients, Robert Irvine proves that you don’t need a lot to make an incredibly satisfying bowl of soup.

This soup, brought to the Midwest by German immigrants, is studded with little chewy dumplings. “The texture of the dumplings and the pure comfort of it all makes this the kind of soup that I just shovel into my mouth with abandon,” says Molly Yeh.

Keep a package of store-bought pierogies in your freezer, so you’ll be ready to whip up a family-friendly meal at a moment’s notice. In this weeknight dinner, the potato dumplings are cooked in a skillet, then stirred into potato soup along with crispy bacon.

Ina Garten’s potato soup recipe starts with roasting potatoes and leeks until the vegetables are tender and caramelized. This really adds to the overall flavor along with the addition of peppery arugula, rich creme fraiche, and fried crispy shallots.

For a family friendly twist, Molly Yeh taps into a cookout favorite and adds ground beef, shredded Swiss cheese and pickles. Serve toasted sesame seed buns on the side for dunking.

A splash of lemon juice and white wine add a bit of brightness to our most classic creamy potato soup.

To ensure a balanced flavor, rinse the sauerkraut before adding it to this soup. This tones down the intense sharpness of the sauerkraut and allows the smokey kielbasa and other aromatics to shine through.

This simple recipe makes it easy (and tasty!) to get more greens into your diet. Before blending the soup, you’ll add kale and zucchini to the mix.

Technically, this isn’t a potato soup recipe since you won’t find a single spud in the ingredient list. That said, roasted cauliflower and radishes give this hearty soup tons of flavor and a smooth consistency that’s similar to the real thing. Plus, you’re still topping each bowl with your favorite baked potato fixings — crispy bacon, shredded Cheddar, sour cream and chives.

Combine two fall favorites — potato soup and butternut squash soup — into one big pot of comfort. Garnish each bowl with pepitas, thyme and a drizzle of cream to take it to the next level.

Cheddar and Broccoli Soup may be a crowd-pleaser, but this alternative is every bit as comforting. Broccoli, potato and leeks are pureed into a silky, savory soup. A splash of heavy cream adds richness.

Knobby, starchy russet potatoes are the humble heroes of comfort foods that run the gamut from homey to luxurious, especially when partnered with dairy. This soup is one of the homier ones: lots of potato, plus some cashew milk and vegan sour cream make for a creamy, chunky, loaded-potato kind of soup. Despite the name, we boil the potatoes in vegetable broth and cashew milk instead of baking, which speeds things up and increases the potato flavor. Be sure to pull out a good amount of cooked potato before pureeing the soup or it will edge toward mashed potatoes. As for the potato peel topping (a vegan alternative to bacon bits), the less potato flesh you remove with the peel the crispier your fried bits will be.

When Panera Bread took its beloved Baked Potato Soup off the menu, the Food Network Kitchen worked to crack the code to create a version everyone can make at home. Featuring cream cheese, Parmesan, and half-and-half, this dairy-laden soup is both decadent and delicious.

If you don’t want to deal with blending hot liquids, this is the recipe for you. Instead of pureeing the potatoes, Rachael Ray simply chops them and adds them to a broth along with chickpeas, ditalini pasta and spinach. The results are hearty, comforting and ready in just 35 minutes.

“The ‘Irish’ in this soup’s name refers to the large Irish population in Savannah, not the type of potato,” says Virginia Willis. Instead, her recipe calls for starchy russet potatoes, which are perfect because they’ll fall apart.

With crispy bacon, melted butter, shredded Cheddar, scallions and sour cream, Trisha Yearwood’s soup is everything you love about a Loaded Baked Potato, but served up as a big bowl of comfort. This is also a great way to use up any leftover baked potatoes.

Inspired by ajiaco, a Colombian dish served in restaurants throughout Bogota, this soul-warming soup features a homemade chicken broth, corn and potatoes, plus a flavorful sauce made with scallions, cilantro, hot sauce and tomatoes.

Another 5-star recipe from Ree Drummond, this big-batch potato soup is bulked up with Italian sausage and kale.

Bookmark this recipe just for the croutons alone. Bread cubes are tossed with melted butter and smoked paprika, then baked until golden brown. You may want to double the recipe, so you can have extra croutons on hand for salads or snacking.