Irish Vegetable Soup
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This Irish Vegetable Soup is creamy and delicious, and it’s filled with hearty, healthy vegetables. Cook up a batch tonight, for St. Patrick’s Day or any day of the week!
Irish Vegetable Soup Recipe
My grandparents were immigrants from Ireland, so I grew up eating my granny’s simple, cozy, Irish recipes. This Irish vegetable soup was one of her — and my — favorites!
There’s nothing like a hearty meal and this Irish Vegetable Soup is exactly that. It’s flavorful, rich and filling, but not overly so. It’s made with lots of hearty, classically Irish vegetables like russet potatoes, leeks, carrots and more, and it’s cooked together and blended into a lovely, creamy soup.
So whether you’re making this soup for St. Patrick’s Day or any weeknight, you’ll be thrilled with this healthy vegetarian-friendly recipe! Serve it with some classic Irish cabbage or crusty Irish brown bread, and you’re in business! So grab a stock pot or dutch oven and let’s get cooking!
Why Irish Vegetable Soup is Worth Making
- Irish Vegetable Soup is packed with hearty vegetables, but it’s blended to give it a creamy texture, rather than chunky like regular vegetable soup.
- This soup is easy to customize with your favorite vegetables. You can even add in things like parsnips or pearled barley.
- It’s a delicious and easy weeknight dinner for cozy season, or you can make it to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Ingredients
Shop for Irish vegetable soup ingredients at your local grocery store. Here’s what you’ll need to make the recipe:
- Vegetable Broth: Use my recipe to make homemade vegetable stock, or grab any store bought brand you like. Chicken broth works too if you’re not making this vegetarian.
- Potatoes: Potatoes work to naturally thicken the soup, not to mention add quintessential Irish flavor! I recommend using starchy potatoes like Russet or Yukon Gold in your soups.
- Carrots
- Onion
- Leeks
- Celery
- Garlic
- Butter: Substitute ghee or any neutral-tasting oil such as avocado oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- Spices: You’ll need dried rosemary, dried thyme, sea salt and pepper.
Variations and Substitutions
Vegan Irish vegetable soup: This Irish vegetable soup recipe is already vegetarian, but if you’re making it vegan, be sure to use vegetable broth and some kind of plant-based oil, like avocado or olive oil.
Don’t want to blend it? That’s totally fine! It’s still delicious as a regular vegetable soup.
Customize it: This soup uses classically Irish vegetables — russet potatoes, leeks, carrots and celery. But feel free to add in your favorite veggies! Parsnips or pearled barley would be great additions. You can even blend in a little heavy cream.
How to Make Irish Vegetable Soup
Ready to make this Irish vegetable soup? Let’s go! First, do the prep work.
- Peel the potatoes and roughly dice them into 1 inch cubes. Remove the garlic cloves from the skins.
- Roughly chop the carrots, celery, leeks, and onion. All the vegetables will be blended together later, so don’t spend too much time cutting everything perfectly!
Remember to save the scraps from the garlic, carrots, celery, onion, and leeks, so you can make vegetable broth later!
Cooking the Soup
- Heat a large stock pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the butter or oil, and melt. Add the carrots, onion, leeks, celery, and garlic. Sauté in the butter for 8-10 minutes, or until softened slightly and beginning to caramelize.
- Stir in the potatoes, broth, and seasonings. Bring the soup to the boil, then lower the heat immediately to allow it to simmer. Cover and simmer for about 25-30 minutes.
- Test to make sure the vegetables are fully cooked before moving on to the next step. A fork should easily slide through any piece of potato or carrot. If it does that, you're good to go!
- Insert an immersion blender and puree until smooth. This soup is rustic, so it doesn't need to be perfectly blended. A little texture is just fine! Then ladle into bowls and eat!
Blending the Soup
The easiest way to blend the soup is to use an immersion blender directly in the pot. Start at a low speed, then gradually increase the speed to high. Continue blending until the soup is creamy and at the consistency you enjoy.
If you don't have an immersion blender: Transfer the soup to a blender, cover and turn to medium-high speed. Purée until it's creamy. Do this in batches so you don't overfill the blender.
What to Serve with Irish Vegetable Soup
This easy vegetable soup recipe would be a good starter course before enjoying a dinner of shepherd’s pie. It's light enough to act as a starter, but it's great as a whole meal, too.
We like to serve it with crackers, crusty bread or homemade Irish soda bread and softened Irish butter (the best kind!).
Storage
Pour leftover soup into an airtight container and store it in the fridge for 3–4 days, per USDA guidelines.
To freeze blended soup, allow it to cool to room temperature, then carefully transfer the soup to a freezer-safe container or bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible, then seal. Lay flat in the freezer until hardened. Freeze for 4-6 months, per USDA. To defrost, set the bag or container on a plate in the refrigerator overnight.
FAQ
Potatoes are a natural thickener because they contain starch. The starchier the potato, the more this will work. Use Russet potatoes or Yukon potatoes, as they're starchier than other potatoes. If your soup is done but you'd like it a bit thicker, allow it to simmer uncovered on low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will help reduce the liquid and thicken the soup more.
Yes! Simply add all the ingredients to a slow cooker and cook on low for 6–8 hours or high for 3–4 hours, until the vegetables are tender. Blend, then season to taste before serving.
Are you making this recipe? I'd love to hear about your experience making it!
Please leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram @cookathomemom.
Irish Vegetable Soup
Equipment
- Dutch Oven or large soup pot
Ingredients
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 3 medium Russet potatoes or Yukon, about 4 cups roughly diced
- ½ onion diced
- 2 leeks
- 2 stalks celery
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 3 medium carrots
- ¾ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoon butter preferably Irish butter. Substitute ghee to make the recipe Whole30/Paleo, or olive oil to make the recipe Vegan.
Video
Instructions
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the butter or oil. Add the carrots, onion, leeks, celery, and garlic. Saute in the butter for 8-10 minutes, or until softened slightly and beginning to caramelize.
- Stir in the potatoes, broth, and seasonings.
- Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat immediately. Cover and simmer for about 25-30 minutes, until the vegetables are softened through.
- Remove the pot from the heat. Blend the soup using an immersion blender until it's smooth.
