The Best Healthy Potato Soup

What could be better than a bowl of creamy potato soup on a winter day? I don’t know, but this healthy potato soup with variations for different special diets will warm and fill everyone up. Nutrient dense and simple to pull together, this is a family favorite!

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It is hard to think of a more consoling winter soup recipe than potato soup with lots of fixings! Flavorful, hearty, and fairly quick to make.

A lot of typical potato soups are delicious but not especially nutrient dense. Not so with this recipe! This one will offer you plenty of nourishment along with all the flavor! Here are the areas that are upgraded:

• more vegetables
• more protein
• nutrient dense meat stock

Can I eat this on the GAPS diet?

Many of my recipes are GAPS-friendly. There is no potato on GAPS! You can, however, adapt this potato soup to a “no-tater” soup by using cauliflower. It won’t taste quite as good, I admit. But it will taste good, especially if you lean heavily into the toppings.

Make sure you use a good GAPS meat stock, opt for home-cultured sour cream or yogurt, and make sure your cheese is GAPS compliant. (Cheddar, Gouda, or Colby would be good options.)

If you use bacon, make sure it is GAPS compliant. Or make your own from pork belly, like this.

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Things to Love about Potato Soup

Besides the flavor– always crucial– there are a number of ways this potato soup offers nutrition without sacrificing flavor!

Meat stock

You can make a fabulous potato soup with regular, store bought broth, bone broth, or even water. Using a good meat stock won’t improve the flavor all that much.

It will, however, affect the nutrition. If you are healing from a recent illness or from chronic physical or mental health challenges, meat stock is your friend. You can see that water and purchased broth wouldn’t provide a lot of benefits. But why meat stock and not bone broth?

Similarly to bone broth, meat stock is packed with minerals, collagen, gelatin, and amino acids. Bone broth is a nourishing food, especially for someone who is is perfect health. If you have a bone broth habit, and no health issues to speak of, you would do well to use bone broth.

If you are trying to heal, though, meat stock is what you want. Bone broth is good for maintaining health, while meat stock is better for regaining it. Meat stock “heals and seals” the gut; bone broth doesn’t. So meat stock offers benefits that bone broth doesn’t.

Meat stock is also gentler on the body. Being cooked for a much shorter time, meat stock is much lower in histamine. Meat stock is also lower in glutamate (something to consider if you are sensitive to MSG, even if your health is good). So, meat stock is easier to digest and otherwise gentler to the system.

Meat stock is easy to make– basically, simmer fresh (not cooked, like for bone broth) meat with the bones, skin if possible, and all the connective and gristly bits for a couple of hours. For more detailed instructions, check this article or this one or watch this video. It is well worth the 18 minutes if meat stock is a new topic for you!

Plenty of Vegetables

Some potato soups don’t have much veg other than the potato and some onion. That can still taste great! However, this potato soup adds in lots more– carrot, celery, garlic, onion, and maybe cauliflower. You don’t even have to use potato!

It is true that the soup will be a little orange because of the carrots. You can leave out the carrots, or you can just have your potato soup with a little color in it. Nobody seems to care around here!

If you want potato soup, but you don’t really want the potato, you can use cauliflower instead. Yes, it will taste different. I can’t say I like it as much made with cauliflower. However, with all the toppings, it still tastes pretty good!

Reasons to use cauliflower instead of potato:

• you are limiting your carbs– potatoes have a lot of carbs, and cauliflower doesn’t. If you are limiting carbs for some reason, your may want to leave out the carrot as well.
• you want a strong nutritional profile– potatoes offer some nutrients, but not as much as cauliflower
• you are on the GAPS diet– no potatoes on GAPS because the starches feed the bad bacteria and we don’t want to do that while healing. Cauliflower is OK, and the carrot is fine on GAPS as well.

Another way to deal– use some potato and some cauliflower. If you can use potato but want less and/or want the nutrients in the cauliflower, this is a good way to go! It tastes close to the all-potato version.

Protein

Most potato soups don’t include a ton of protein. Sometimes, potato soup is served as a side dish with meat and vegetable dishes.

You can improve the protein content in a few ways. First, a good, home-simmered meat stock contains a lot more protein than water or most broths. Bone broth can also be more protein-rich. It might not seem that way, but the protein is there.

Second, if cottage cheese is an option for you, purée in some cottage cheese. Cottage cheese has about 13 grams of protein per half cup. Or use yogurt or kefir, especially if you are on the GAPS diet.

Finally, you can increase the protein even more with your toppings. Cheese and bacon add a little, and if you choose yogurt over sour cream, you will get a little extra. It adds up.

Smooth, creamy texture

There is something consoling about this texture of soup. Now and then, we enjoy a thick, creamy soup.

I made this pretty much every time someone had braces tightened, oral surgery, or some similar hard day or two. It is easy to get down (with soft toppings), but doesn’t taste like “sick food” and still fills you up. That and they just wanted this soup on a bad mouth day.

Flavor

Ultimately, we want our food to taste good. This potato soup is one of our favorites for the taste. In fact, that is why I reworked it a bit to make it more nourishing! We wall wanted to have it, and I didn’t want to sacrifice the nutrient density.

How to Make Potato Soup

Make your meat stock in advance, if using. Measure out a quart.

If you plan to use bacon as a topping, you can start by frying the bacon. Set it aside and crumble or chop it when it is cool. I like to use the grease to sauté the vegetables. You can use whatever cooking fat works for you, though.

Chop the onion, carrot, and celery. Mince the garlic. (You can use a fresh or frozen mirepoix from the store for this for added convenience.)

In your soup pot, heat the bacon grease or other fat and sauté the vegetables together until they are softened.

Chop the potatoes, cauliflower, or both to equal 3-4 cups.

Add the potatoes/cauliflower and the meat stock. Bring to almost boiling, then let it all simmer until all the vegetables and potatoes are very soft.

Add the cottage cheese, if you are using it. Purée until smooth. You can use an immersion blender (something like this), a regular blender, or a food processor. You can also add the bacon before puréeing so it is evenly incorporated. And everyone gets the same amount. (Ahem. No bacon fights.)

Season with salt and pepper. Add herbs if you like. Serve in bowls topped with whatever you choose– shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, chopped onion, sour cream or Greek yogurt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh herbs, etc.

Make Potato Soup Your Way

Soup being soup, there are lots of ways to adapt it to fit your dietary needs and preferences, and what you have in the kitchen. Here are some ideas:

• as mentioned, you can swap the potatoes for cauliflower.
• for nondairy, try canned coconut milk or cream or another nondairy milk, possibly thickened with a couple tablespoons or cornstarch or arrowroot. Skip the cheese and sour cream, or use versions that work for you.
• if you don’t want bacon, skip it. Or make it yourself with this method. You could use ham, Canadian bacon, or even crumbled sausage for a twist.
• I recommend a nourishing meat stock, or bone broth as a second choice, but purchased broth or even water will do fine. Use what you have!
• skip whatever vegetable needed, or change the quantities. Soup is forgiving! There was a time I used only 1/4 onion because my daughter would detect and reject any more. Now she loves this soup even with 2 large onions. Do what you need to do!
• no cottage cheese? Greek yogurt (or home cultured yogurt with some whey dripped out to thicken it) works well. Or use milk (dairy or not) with a couple tablespoons of arrowroot or cornstarch whisked in– whisk the milk into the bubbling soup and keep stirring or whisking until the potato soup returns to a boil and thickens slightly.

Enjoy your soup and be well!