Spinach Leek Soup
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This homemade spinach leek soup is quick and easy to make, all in one pot. It’s full of flavor without being spicy and great for those times you want to up your veggie intake without just grabbing more celery sticks 🙂
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This is actually a French-inspired spinach and leek soup. It’s a velouté-style soup, where the vegetables are gently sautéed, simmered until tender, then puréed until smooth and finished with a touch of cream for a smooth, velvety texture.
Once you blend it, the soup turns this bright, lovely green, and the first spoonful is warm and silky, with just enough cream to soften the leek.
Spinach Leek Soup Recipe Quick Look
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 20 min | Total: 35 min | Serves: 4
- Flavor profile: Creamy, mild French velouté-style soup full of flavor, but not spicy.
- Key ingredients: Spinach, Leeks, Carrot, Celery, Parsley, Cream (Optional).
- Method: Saute carrots, celery and leeks, add water, then simmer. Add spinach at the very end. Add cream or milk if using and top with chopped chives. All in one pot!
Table of contents
A Velouté Style Soup
In France, my mother-in-law often served velouté-style soups as an entrée before the main meal. Velouté soups are traditionally made by using “roux”, a combination of flour and butter, and then adding a stock base to it.
My mother-in-law taught me the French cheats’ version, which is basically just finely mixing the soup ingredients with an immersion blender, sometimes even passing it through a fine sieve, and then either adding a bit of cream or cream cheese or adding some tiny vermicelli pastas.
That’s what this soup is about. You just briefly sauté the soup base of leeks, carrot and celery, add water and simmer until soft. Add the spinach at the end, puree and add your cream if using. And voila, you have a French velouté style soup that is refreshing, velvety and full of flavor.
You can read a bit more about my time in French kitchens on my About page.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Full of veggies – Leeks are a great source of vitamin K and antioxidants, spinach has iron, folate, and vitamin C, and there is also carrot, celery and parsley.
- Full of veggie flavor without any chilli, spice or stock cubes. Instead you get the flavor from the base veggies of carrot, celery and parsley.
- Vegan friendly – Leave out the cream or use a plant-based cream.
- Pretty color. Spinach goes in right at the very end, so it stays bright green and tastes like spinach instead of tired, overcooked greens.
- Budget friendly and ready in 35 minutes.
Equipment
- Cutting board – to chop the veggies
- Sharp knife – to slice the veggies
- Vegetable peeler – to peel the carrot
- Large pot – to cook the soup
Ingredients to Make Leek Spinach Soup
Full quantities in the recipe card below.
- Leeks – Use the white parts of the leek. And wash them way more than you think they need it. Leeks are renowned for hiding sandy bits. So I usually wash them, then slice them and then wash them again multiple times in a bowl of water until I can no longer see or feel any sand anywhere.
- Spinach – I like to use baby spinach, but you can use English spinach as well. Just remove the stalks and wash it really well.
- Olive oil – or vegetable oil or butter
- Celery – Slice it across the grain, so you don’t get stringy bits when you blend it.
- Carrot – I like to use organic carrots, but any kind is fine.
- Parsley – A small handful. It adds a bit of depth to the soup.
- Water – Water is all you need, no stock powder needed. You can, if you like, add homemade vegetable or chicken stock.
Substitutions and Additions
- Cream – You can leave it out if you prefer, or use plant-based cream or milk. I have not tested this with coconut milk. I usually add some heavy cream 🙂
- Spinach – Baby spinach or English spinach work well. I should think frozen would work if you add it at the end so it does not overcook.
- Potatoes – You can add a couple of potatoes with the leeks if you would like it thicker. Or you can make my cauliflower potato leek soup instead, where I do add a potato. I’m not really sure why, but I find this leek and spinach soup tastes lighter and better without potato, while my cauliflower leek soup tastes better with potato. That said, it’s still very nice if you want to bulk it up and add a potato and make it go a bit further.
- Celery, carrot and parsley – You can leave one or all of them out if you like, but I find they give the soup a depth of flavor. If you omit them, you may need to use a stock powder cube or powder for that flavor base.
- Cheese – You can add some grated cheddar, gruyere, feta, goat cheese or any cheese you like if you like.
- Vermicelli or little star pastas – My French mother-in-law used to sometimes cook these separately and add them to the soup at the end, just to be a little different and then she would leave out the cream.
- Fresh herbs for garnish – You can always add some dill, parsley or chopped chives
How to Make Spinach Leek Soup
This is one of those recipes you really can’t mess up, as long as you don’t skip washing the leeks properly.
- Slice the carrot and celery, making sure you slice the celery rather thinly to avoid long stringy bits in your soup.
- Saute the carrots and celery in a large pot in olive oil or butter until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the leeks (white and pale green parts), sliced and washed well and continue cooking until the veggies have all softened, about another 5 minutes.
- Pour in 4 cups water (or homemade vegetable or chicken stock) and bring to a simmer. Cook until all the vegetables are completely tender, about 15 minutes.
- Add the spinach at the end: Stir in 6 cups baby spinach, packed (about 200g) and cook just until wilted, just a minute really, to keep the color bright.
- Take off the heat and blend the soup until smooth using an immersion blender or food processor or similar.
- While the soup is still off the heat, stir in the heavy cream or milk if using, along with the salt and pepper, plus more to taste.
- Serve topped with 2 tbsp chopped chives, for garnish (or parsley or dill).
Tips
- Wash the leeks multiple times to get rid of any hidden sand or grit.
- Slice the celery thinly and across the fibers.
- Add the spinach at the last minute, not with the other vegetables. It keeps the color a pretty green color and the flavor fresh instead of bland and overcooked.
- Push it through a fine mesh sieve for that super velvety (velouté-style) texture.
- Add the cream at the very end, you can even just add it directly to the bowl for. pretty swirl. Be careful not to let the soup boil once the cream is in, otherwise the texture can turn a bit grainy.
- Top with chopped chives just before serving. It looks very pretty and adds a lovely flavor. Fresh parsley or dill both work well too.
Storage and Make Ahead
- Keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.
- Freeze without the cream for up to 3 months and add it fresh when reheating.
- The soup base can be made a day ahead. Stir in the cream right before serving.
What to Serve With Spinach Leek Soup
My Latvian grandmother used to fry pieces of bread in bacon fat and eat it alongside various soups. These days I (mostly) prefer to make my own croutons or bread fingers by lightly toasting whole grain bread or rye bread with a bit of olive oil in an air fryer or in a pan.
This is also lovely with a simple crusty bread for dipping. Or with avocado on cottage cheese toast, or just a simple slice of cheese alongside.
FAQ
Theoretically, you can use the whole leek, but the darker green part tends to be have a stronger taste and is less tender. So most people recommend using the white and light green parts of the leek. You can save or freeze the dark green parts and use to make a soup stock. The important thing is to wash the leek really, really well as they are usually grown in sandy soil and little sand bits can hide between layers.
Yes! Spinach and leeks go really well together. Leeks bring a mild, sweet onion flavor that lets the spinach’s freshness come through. BUT they have different cooking times. Cook the leek until soft and tender and add the spinach at the very end. You really just need to wilt the spinach, which takes about a minute.
Yes, it still has a lovely flavor owing to the base of carrots, celery and parsley. With cream or milk stirred in at the end, it becomes more substantial and a little richer.
You don’t need any stock for this soup as you get a base flavor when you saute the leek, carrot, celery and parsley. You can use vegetable or stock powder if you like, but I find it flattens the flavor and makes it taste like every other soup. What you can do is use home made vegetable or chicken stock, which can be quite nice. Just make sure your homemade stock does not contain any flavorings that would conflict with this European style soup.
I don’t see why not, if you add it at the same late stage as fresh, though I haven’t tested it myself in this particular recipe.
This is almost certainly because you did not wash the leeks enough. I recommend slicing the leeks and then washing the leeks multiple times, making sure there is no way any tiny bit of sand could hide between the leaves.
Made this homemade spinach leek soup? Leave a rating below. It helps other home cooks find it. Every recipe on this blog is made and tested in my own kitchen. You can read more about how I develop and test recipes here. 🙂
Other Soups You Might Enjoy
If you liked how light this one is, I’ve got a few others in the same vein.
- Asparagus soup with dill, Baltic style – One of my favorite soups. I love the flavor of asparagus and dill together.
- Asparagus and sweet potato soup – A nice hearty combination
- Broccoli and sweet potato soup – You might be surprised how well broccoli and sweet potato go together!
Want to save this recipe?
We’ll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later! Plus get great new recipes from us every week!
Spinach Leek Soup
Equipment
- 1 Sharp knife
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
- 1 carrot chopped
- 1 large celery stalk thinly sliced across the fibers
- 3 medium leeks white and pale green parts, sliced and washed really, really well
- 4 cups water or homemade vegetable or chicken stock
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
- 6 cups baby spinach packed or English spinach, stems removed (about 200g)
- 0.5 cups heavy cream or milk or plant-based cream (optional), plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoons sea salt plus more to taste
- 0.5 teaspoons black pepper
- 2 tbsp chopped chives for garnish (or parsley or dill)
Instructions
- Slice the carrot and celery, making sure you slice the celery rather thinly to avoid long stringy bits in your soup.
- Saute the carrots and celery in a large pot in olive oil or butter until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the leeks (white and pale green parts), sliced and washed well and continue cooking until the veggies have all softened, about another 5 minutes.
- Pour in 4 cups water (or homemade vegetable or chicken stock) and bring to a simmer. Cook until all the vegetables are completely tender, about 15 minutes.
- Add the spinach at the end: Stir in 6 cups baby spinach, packed (about 200g) and cook just until wilted, just a minute really, to keep the color bright.
- Take off the heat and blend the soup until smooth using an immersion blender or food processor or similar.
- While the soup is still off the heat, stir in the heavy cream or milk if using, along with the salt and pepper, plus more to taste.
- Serve topped with 2 tbsp chopped chives, for garnish (or parsley or dill).
Notes
Tips
- Wash the leeks multiple times to get rid of any hidden sand or grit.
- Slice the celery thinly and across the fibers.
- Add the spinach at the last minute, not with the other vegetables. It keeps the color a pretty green color and the flavor fresh instead of bland and overcooked.
- Add the cream at the very end, you can even just add it directly to the bowl for a pretty swirl. Be careful not to let the soup boil once the cream is in, otherwise the texture can turn a bit grainy.
- Top with chopped chives just before serving. It looks very pretty and adds a lovely flavor. Fresh parsley or dill both work well too.
- Make it vegan – Leave out the cream or use plant-based cream and no butter.
Storage and Make-Ahead
- Keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.
- Freeze without the cream for up to 3 months and add it fresh when reheating.
- The soup base can be made a day ahead. Stir in the cream right before serving.
