13 Ingredients To Elevate The Flavor Of Potato Soup

Nothing is more comforting than soup, and potato soup is not only comforting, but easy to make. A basic potato soup consists of potatoes that are boiled until very soft, then blended with other ingredients, usually including a dairy element like cream, milk, or butter. Although it's fine to just use water, most basic potato soup recipes will advise boiling your potatoes in some kind of stock. A typical potato soup usually includes a small number of seasonings or vegetables, as well. Lots of people have a favorite way to make potato soup, and no wonder; it's a no-fuss, cozy meal that's hard not to love.

No matter how much you love a hot bowl of potato soup, you may find yourself craving a little culinary adventure. Luckily, there are lots of easy ways to give your potato soup some extra flavor, and most of them don't involve a lot more preparation than what you're probably doing now. Here are some ingredients that can make your potato soup more interesting — and delicious.

With a strong, rich taste that's like a more mellow version of onions, leeks are the perfect addition to a comforting potato soup. You'll find leek and potato soup recipes in cuisines around the world. In France, for instance, leek and potato soup is pretty much the go-to version of potato soup. There are many variants, especially as far as additional seasonings might go, but a typical French-style leek and potato soup involves fairly thin, round slices of leek in pureed potatoes. You can add every part of a leek to your soup, but it's easiest and most common to use just the white part. Stir in a good dose of butter (or heavy cream, if you prefer). Then, add garlic, parsley, salt, and, if you like, a dash of white wine, and voila! Most recipes call for boiling the potatoes and leeks in chicken stock, but plain water works fine, too. 

The only downside of cooking with leeks is that they have to be carefully cleaned, since they have lots of ridges and wrinkles that can trap dirt. The best way to clean a leek is to cut it into round slices and then put the slices — which are naturally buoyant — into a bowl of water. Stir around with your hands and you'll see the trapped dirt fall to the bottom of the bowl. You may want to give them an additional rinse in a colander as well.

If you're one of the many people out there who loves bacon, you probably know that bacon bits are amazing on baked potatoes — that's the case with potato soup, too. The salty smokiness of the bacon makes quite the pair with creamy potatoes. Sprinkle them on top of your soup and then dig in!

You can also go another route, using thick cut bacon in your soup instead. The ideal way to truly get the most out of your bacon and potato soup combination is by cutting thick bacon strips into small pieces, then cooking them in your soup pot first. Remove them and save them for later, and, without washing the pot, add the potatoes, stock, water, and other ingredients. The bacon grease is an additional way to add flavor to the soup. When it's finished, add your pieces of bacon to it. You can include bacon in just about any potato soup recipe, including bacon and cheese soups and potato leek soup.

Although most of us may not automatically associate them with liquid-based dishes, nuts are a great way to add flavor to potato soup. Walnuts, with their sweet, creamy taste and medium-hard texture, are a particularly good choice, but if another nutty flavor seems appealing, why not give that a try? 

There are several ways to add nuts to potato soup. You can simply scatter them on top of the soup, then stir them in. However, many cooks prepare their nuts before, usually by baking or simmering them. Prepared or not, the result is the same idea as croutons — little, hard or crunchy bursts of flavor. If you prefer a more uniform texture, you can crush nuts and stir or blend them into your potato soup. This may make the flavor a bit more subtle than biting into an entire piece of nut, but it should add a pleasant note to the soup's overall taste. You may be wondering if using nut milk in your potato soup would be the most efficient way to get the nut flavor, plus a more creamy texture. Nut milks are often used as a dairy substitute in potato soup recipes, but their flavor is more subtle than whole or crushed nuts. In fact, depending on the other seasonings you add to your potato soup, the flavor might be virtually undetectable. If you want a potato soup that's packed with nutty flavor, opt for whole or crushed nuts instead.

Chives are one of the most common traditional baked potato toppings, and they can be a great, flavorful addition to potato soup, too. One of the best potato soup recipes that includes chives is Vichyssoise. Vichyssoise was created by chef Louis Diat in 1917. Diat was French, from a village near the city of Vichy, which gives the soup its name. However, he actually created his soup when working in the kitchen of the Ritz-Carlton in New York. Vichyssoise was inspired by something Diat's mother used to do on hot days: adding cold milk to a basic potato and leek soup. Diat's recipe starts with cooking diced potatoes and leeks in butter. Then, vegetable or chicken broth (or even just water) is added before boiling the ingredients. Once they're soft enough to puree, cream is added. When the soup is cooled and ready, you can add a garnish of chives.

There are a number of variations of Diat's Vichyssoise recipe. One of the most common is to replace the cream with sour cream. The contrast with the chives is divine, although many cooks note that the sour cream's flavor can be a bit overpowering. If you want a more soothing soup experience, it's probably best to stick with regular cream. One thing that probably shouldn't change about Vichyssoise is that it's meant to be served cold. This, along with the crisp taste of the chives (another element of the recipe that's pretty much a constant), makes for a potato soup you can eat on a hot day, as Diat (and his mother) intended.

In a typical potato soup, the cream base comes from dairy milk or a dairy milk substitute. Change that up and your soup will have a dramatically different taste. For instance, using coconut milk instead of dairy (or dairy-like) milk will give your potato soup a new, refreshing flavor.

There are lots of interesting and delicious coconut and potato soup recipes out there. You could make a Thai-inspired potato soup by using coconut milk and curry, along with spices like turmeric and red pepper flakes. Alternatively, you can try your hand at making supu viazi, a coconut and potato soup from Tanzania. An article featured on Tanzanian culture website the United Republic of Tanzania reports that large numbers of coconut trees grow along Tanzania's eastern coast, making coconuts a popular local ingredient. While supu viazi is traditionally made with unripe bananas instead of potatoes, today, recipes often use potatoes instead. The site's recipe even suggests adding an unripe banana for a more authentic taste experience. In addition to potatoes, coconut milk, and possibly an unripe banana, supu viazi's typical ingredients include onions, celery, peppers (bell or spicy), garlic, and tomatoes. Several recipes, including this one, also recommend adding avocado slices to the top.

Cheese and potatoes is a delicious, creamy combination. No wonder this dairy product is one of the most common ingredients to add to potato soup. Most Americans tend to use good old Velveeta or cheddar cheese, but keep in mind that the sky's the limit; you can make potato soup with pretty much any cheese you like. One Quora user, for instance, suggests favorites like Swiss, Monterey Jack, or Parmesan. If you're craving an extra creamy soup with a tangy bite, you could even use cream cheese. Alternatively, why not use your potato soup as a way to try a totally new cheese flavor? If you're truly passionate about cheese, consider flavoring your soup with two cheeses instead of just one.

Whatever you decide, before you start, be sure you know how to best integrate your cheese (or cheeses) of choice into your soup. It's usually best to shred hard cheeses so that they'll melt and blend more easily. When it comes to soft cheeses, some cooks say the best way to evenly spread their flavor throughout your soup is to use a blender. Your cheese and potato soup's deliciousness doesn't have to stop there. In addition to your favorite seasonings, consider adding a meat element as well — for instance, who doesn't love cheddar and bacon together?

If you know, you know: the earthy, starchy taste of potatoes and the luxurious taste of a creamy ingredient are a perfect duo to combine with fish. You could take inspiration from a dish like cod brandade and add that fish to a basic creamy potato soup seasoned with garlic and parsley. 

For a slightly more complicated potato soup with fish, you can't go wrong with one of our favorites. Lohikeitto is a Finnish soup where salmon, potatoes, vegetables, and cream combine. The soup is known as a way for Finnish families to use leftovers like salmon scraps (including the skin), leek leaves, and carrot peels. These are used to make a broth to cook the whole ingredients in, and cream is added as well. As with many soup recipes, seasonings vary depending on your taste. Typical choices for lohikeitto include allspice and dill. 

A good way to elevate the flavor of your potato soup — and make it a little healthier — is to add vegetables. Even common veggies like carrots and onions contrast nicely with a potato and cream base. To soften them and unleash their maximum flavor potential, sauté them in butter in your pot before adding the other ingredients and making the soup.

One delicious way to enjoy this taste combination is German potato soup, which brings together all of these ingredients and more. In addition to potatoes and vegetables like celery and carrots, a typical German potato soup recipe calls for double cream as well as butter, and your choice of seasonings (recipe variants include anything from garlic to nutmeg). You can add bacon and slices of sausage, or both, or go meat-free.

As soup fans know, cream and mushrooms go together just as deliciously as cream and potatoes, so why not add mushrooms to your favorite potato soup? To enhance the mushrooms' flavor, in addition to a creamy base, consider using salt, garlic, and parsley as your soup's key seasonings. Onions are also a good idea.

As for which mushroom to choose, just about any type would work, depending on your preferences. Cremini mushrooms tend to be affordable and fairly flavorful. They'll blend nicely with the rest of your soup while still adding a distinct taste of their own. If you want the mushrooms to take the lead when it comes to taste, consider splurging for varieties like chanterelles or morels. Whichever kind you choose, make sure you're cleaning, handling, and storing your mushrooms properly so that they'll be at their best when it comes time to add them to your soup. 

The taste of dill is surprisingly difficult to describe. Some, like seasoning company Schwartz, call this aromatic plant's flavor "fresh, citrus-like taste, with a slightly grassy undertone." Others say its taste is a bit like anise or licorice. One thing is certain, though: no matter how you describe its taste profile, dill stands out and gives a sort of unusual freshness to just about anything it's paired with- including earthy, mellow-tasting potatoes.

A dill and potato soup is even among one country's favorite national dishes. Zupa koperkowa is a beloved Polish potato soup with cream, vegetables, and a large quantity of dill leaves scattered in every bowl. You can also enjoy dill and potato soup without the dairy, letting these two ingredients shine on their own. You'll find countless tasty examples of dairy-free dill and potato soup online.

Chicken soup is the king of all comforting soups, and chicken on its own is a perfect canvas for flavor. That being said, you can't go wrong by adding chicken to your potato soup. Many chicken and potato soup recipes will start by asking you to prepare chicken breasts by poaching them (cooking them in water). Then, you can cut them and add them to your potato soup recipe of choice. You can go classic, with a basic potato soup and some vegetables, or why not pair the chicken with another flavorful potato soup ingredient? For instance, many chicken and potato soup recipes include bacon as well. 

Another easier and often tastier option is to add pieces of homemade or store-bought rotisserie chicken to your finished potato soup. Slowly stir them in and let their seasonings suffuse into the mix while keeping the soup at low heat. You can also do this with premade chicken seasoned other ways, like barbecue or tandoori chicken.

Curry is a sauce or stew made up of spices that's used to season many dishes in cuisines like Indian and Thai. You can take inspiration from traditional curry dishes to give your basic potato soup a unique, warm and complex flavor. If making your own curry from scratch seems daunting, keep things simple by stirring some curry powder (a pre-made blend of spices) into your usual potato soup. Keep in mind that most cooks agree curry powder tastes best when it's combined with other spices and seasonings — consider adding additional seasonings like turmeric, salt, and cumin. You can also add red chili powder if you want your soup to have a spicy kick. If you want your potato soup to take its inspiration from Thai curry, consider adding coconut milk as well.

The ultimate potato curry soup might just be aloo curry, a typical Indian potato dish seasoned with curry and other spices. Although a curry isn't technically a soup, many Indian cooks and foodies place aloo curry in the soup family or have recipes that make it more soup-like. Technical categories aside, aloo curry is a great, easy way to give your typical potato soup a delicious new flavor palette. Whether you choose to make a dish like aloo curry or just want to keep things simple by adding some curry powder to a creamy potato soup base, you're guaranteed to give your typical potato soup a flavor upgrade.

If you're short on time or simply don't feel like cutting potatoes for your potato soup, many cooks suggest using frozen hash browns instead.  This isn't just a useful hack, but a huge source of inspiration. Why not add another kind of prepared potatoes to your soup for additional flavor and an interesting texture experience? For instance, fry and cut up some potato skins and stir them in. For an interesting texture and some heat, consider adding batata harra — spicy Middle Eastern fried or roasted potatoes — into your soup.  

You could also venture into the world of the other popular potato, sweet potatoes. Include these along with your regular potatoes and any other ingredient or seasoning that inspires you. The unique blend of starchy and sweet base notes that will take your potato soup to the next level. You can even add an additional kind of potato to this soup for the maximum amount of potato goodness. If this seems like a lot to take in, don't worry — fellow potato fans have posted countless recipes for three potato soup online. Pick your favorite and then start making what might just be the ultimate celebration of potatoes in soup.