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Leek and Potato SoupLeek or Onion and Potato Soup
April 5, 2019 | Updated February 9, 2023 | Laura
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✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽
Julia Child Recipe 4 | 524 recipes to go!
✽ Leek or Onion and Potato Soup [Potage Parmentier], p. 37
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✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)
The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.
Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.
What you will find on my blog is:
✽ Butter Count & Cost Total
✽ How the Recipe Tasted
✽ Answers to Questions about Recipe
✽ Fun Facts about Recipe or an Ingredient Used
✽ The Recipe Process
✽ Step-by-Step and Final Photos of Recipe
I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!
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Butter Count & Cost: Potage Parmentier
✽ Butter Count: +3 TB
✽ Cost: $4.26 [~$0.61 per serving]
Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!
→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!
Simple, but still delicious.
For my second attempt at cooking a Julie Child meal, I went for something that was quick. But really, is there such thing as a quick Julia Child meal? We'll see.
I started pharmacy school back up after winter break, and I’m struggling to say the least. But I will continue to try my best at least doing 1-2 recipes per week.
This was a simple meal, but it did take some time. Mostly waiting around time though. There is literally only 6 ingredients: potatoes, leeks, water, salt, whipping cream, and chives.
I chose to make it with leeks instead of onions just because I haven’t cooked with leeks much before. They really are just big green onions.. right??
Leek and Onion Soup: Questions
✽ What additions can you add to this potato soup recipe?
While this soup is great on its own, it also makes for a great base for other soups as well. Add watercress for a watercress soup or cream for a vichyssoise.
You could also add pretty much any vegetable to the soup. My personal favorite- bacon, cheese, and a couple dashes of hot sauce.
✽ Why didn't you use a blender?
I try my best to follow these recipes exactly as written so I can learn new techniques and flavors. When following a recipe, my 'I can do this better' frequently gets in the way. I wanted to use a blender to puree this soup together, but the recipe specifically said 'mash with a fork or pass the soup through a food mill'. Since I do not own a food mill, the fork was my only option.
With that said, by using the fork to mash this soup, I learned that I will most definitely use a blender next time. I was missing uniformity of the ingredients.
✽ Blender vs. Food Mill
The cookbook makes it very clear that the authors prefer a food mill over the electric blender. They claim that a blender or processor will leave behind tough woody bits of vegetables while the food mill will give you a 'fiber-free brew'.
✽ When do you serve this leek and potato soup?
This soup can be served at lunch or for a light dinner along with a salad, cheese, and fruit. This soup is also a great choice for the first course of a multi-course meal.
Looking for more Julia Child soup recipes to read about?
→ Check out all of the soup recipes that I've completed so far!
Fun Facts about Leeks
*Find these facts plus lots more on Wikipedia.*
✽ What is the scientific name for a leek?
The scientific name for leek is Allium ampeloprasum. Also belonging to genus Allium is the onion, garlic, shallot, chive, and scallion.
✽ What do leeks taste like?
Leeks have a mild onion taste. Usually, just the whites and the light green parts of the leaves are eaten. The dark green parts are usually thrown away or used to stocks.
✽ Where is the leek considered the national emblem?
The leek, alongside the daffodil, is considered the national emblem of Wales. It is said that King Cadwaldr of Gwynedd made Welsh soldiers wear leeks on their armour so they could be identified in battle.
How to Make Potage Parmentier
✽ Step 1: Simmer Ingredients
Now that’s a lot of leeks! Anyways, you basically just put the first 4 ingredients (potatoes, leeks, water, salt) in a big pot and wait around about an hour.
✽ Step 2: Mash
Then Julia says to “mash the vegetables in the soup with a fork, or pass the soup through a food mill. Since I do not have a food mill, I used a fork. I realllyyy wanted to use my electric blender instead as I feel like this would have make a better consistency but I’m really trying to stick to the recipe as much as possible. Maybe I’ll invest in a food mill for the next soup recipes?
✽ Step 3: Add Cream & Serve
After everything is mashed up, you stir in whipping cream or butter and top with chives.
In all honesty, this wasn’t one of my favorites. It wasn’t terrible by any means but dare I say, it was a little bland. Next time I will use chicken stock instead of water to add a little more flavor to it. Also, I do think if I had used a blender, the ingredients would have combined better to give a more leek-flavored soup.
Don't get me wrong though, I would eat this soup any day of the week. While it doesn't remind me of the potato soup I ate as a child, it still has a classic taste to it that was comforting. I think this potato soup would be a great choice as a first course to a fancy dinner.
Overall, it’s a great soup if you are looking for something simple and cheap. I mean, the whole thing cost me about $5, and it makes A TON.
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Edit: These pictures are.. not great. I apologize. When making these early recipes I was working in an extremely tiny kitchen that had pratically zero counter space and very poor lighting. My only saving grace was that somebody once had one of those pull-out cutting boards installed. What a life saver.
I was also in pharmacy school, getting minimal sleep, working for free, completely broke, didn't know the first thing about taking photos, and knew practically nothing about French cooking (or cooking in general for that matter).
I've debated taking these old posts down but decided to keep them up because they are all a part of my journey. These photos and my written struggles remind me how far I've come. I can pretty much make some of these base recipes in my sleep now!
You don't need fancy equipment or the finest ingredients to enjoy cooking and make good food. As one of my favorite cartoon characters, Ms. Frizzle, says, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"
*This blog, Laura the Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.
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Category: Julia Child, Soup Cuisine: French
Keywords: leek and potato soup recipe, Julia Child soup recipes, easy soup recipes, french soup recipe, potage parmentier recipe, Julia Child potato soup recipe
✽ Did you make this recipe too?
→ Let me know by leaving a comment below and sharing on Instagram. Tag @laurathegastronaut and hashtag it #laurathegastronaut.
More Soup Recipes:
✽ Cream of Mushroom Soup (a delicious creamy soup perfect for mushroom lovers)
✽ Vichyssoise (a cold leek and potato soup recipe)
✽ Soupe au Pistou (a tomato-based soup filled with in-season vegetables)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child soup recipes!
✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
→ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!
Bon appétit!
April 5, 2019 by Laura Ehlers
*This Leek or Onion and Potato Soup blog post may contain some Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.