Milk/Cream

Indian-Spiced Potato & Leek Soup

November 16, 2023
4.3
3 Ratings
Photo by Julia Gartland
  • Prep time 10 minutes
  • Cook time 30 minutes
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

This is a mashup of a cozy, potato and leek soup and all the spices typically found in Gujarati dal, a lentil soup. Gently spiced with cumin, coriander, curry leaves, and more, this flavorful soup works best, in my experience, with dairy milk. It makes the soup creamy without being heavy, and its flavor enhances the warm Indian spices.

The soup is finished with a tempered spice oil, or tadka (also called vaghar). Serve with crusty bread, and warm yourself up!


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Test Kitchen Notes

This recipe is shared in partnership with GonnaNeedMilk.Food52

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Indian-Spiced Potato & Leek Soup
Ingredients
  • For the potato leek soup:
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3 large leeks (about 358 grams), white and light green parts only, rinsed and roughly chopped
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 2 large (about 1 pound) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, 1-inch dice
  • 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • Kosher salt, to taste

  • For the vaghar:
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 4 curry leaves
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 pinch turmeric
Directions
  1. Make the soup: Into a saucepan over medium-high heat, add butter. Once the butter has melted, add leeks and a pinch of salt and stir well. Sauté the leeks for 10 minutes, stirring often. The leeks should be soft and broken down. Add coriander, cumin, garam masala, turmeric, and cayenne. Stir and sauté for 1 minute. Add chopped potatoes and stir until well combined. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes while covered, until the potatoes are tender. Add in the whole milk. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup until it’s smooth. Simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt to taste and remove from heat.
  2. Make the vaghar: Add oil Into a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard and cumin seeds. When they start to pop, stir in the curry leaves. Once the curry leaves stop sputtering, remove the pan from the heat and add cayenne and turmeric. Stir well and immediately pour the hot oil over the soup and serve.

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1 Review

drhappy November 18, 2023
This _looked_ delicious so I eagerly tried this recipe today. I know that flavor is very subjective, but tbh, I was a little disappointed with this recipe. Using the spice ingredients as is, I could barely taste any of it against the potato leek backdrop. I ended up doubling and tripling the amounts of cumin, coriander and garam masala, but it still didn't quite live up to my expectations. It wasn't a bad soup. It just wasn't a great soup.