4 Ingredient Potato Soup

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My 4-ingredient potato soup is thick, creamy, and made in one pot in 40 minutes using just milk, onion, butter, and potatoes. It is simple, delicious, and perfect for chilly winter nights, especially topped with shredded cheese and green onions.

Simple recipes with minimal ingredients aren’t only awesome, they’re necessary! Especially when you have young kiddos, long workdays, or both, like me. And the reason I created this potato soup is because I didn’t have the other ingredients to make carrot potato soup for dinner the other night.

It’s a quick comfort food that requires affordable pantry staples. I always have milk, onions, butter, and potatoes on hand at all times to make this soup and my creamy vegan scalloped potatoes. Which means if I can’t find time for a grocery trip, I’m only 40 minutes away from old-fashioned potato soup! Yes, please!

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🥘 Ingredients

My easy potato soup recipe calls for four key ingredients, plus water and salt! You likely have all of these ingredients on hand already, but if you don’t, you can find them at any grocery store.

Unsalted Butter: I use butter to sauté the onion and give the soup a creamier texture as well as flavor. Olive oil is a great option if you don’t mind the olive flavor coming through in the soup.

Onion: Sweet onion, yellow onion, or white onion all work great in this soup.

Potatoes: For best results, I use starchy or all-purpose potatoes for this recipe, like Russet potatoes, Yukon gold, red potatoes, or baby potatoes.

Milk: I recommend whole milk for extra creaminess, but skim milk works too. For an even richer soup, swap with half and half.

Water: The water is for boiling the potatoes and creating the right thickness when blended.

Salt and Pepper: Seasoning is a must for making my soup flavorful. Salt and pepper are crucial for flavorful food.

Optional Toppings: To garnish my creamy potato soup, I sprinkle sliced green onions and/or shredded cheese!

🔪 How To Make

Here are my simple step-by-step instructions to make this 4-ingredient potato soup recipe!

Saute Onion: In a large pot over medium heat, I sauté the onion with one tablespoon of butter until it’s translucent.

Simmer Potatoes: I add the diced potatoes and two cups of water. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Once it boils, I reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender, about 15 minutes.

Mash Potatoes: Then, I remove the pot from the heat and mash the potatoes using an immersion blender, adding half a cup of milk before mashing. If you like a chunky soup, use a potato masher and leave some potato chunks.

Add Remaining Ingredients: Once mashed, I stir in the remaining milk and butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

Simmer and Serve: Next, I return the soup to the heat and simmer for 5 more minutes before serving it into bowls, and topping them with shredded cheese and green onion.

📖 Variations

My favorite way to customize this 4 ingredient soup is with toppings, but it can easily be made dairy-free and vegan if desired.

Make It Vegan: To make this easy potato soup recipe vegan friendly, just switch out all of the dairy ingredients with vegan alternatives. Swap the butter with vegan butter and the milk with unsweetened plant milk or vegetable broth. I prefer unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk since the flavor is relatively neutral.

Sweet Potato Soup: Just swap the regular potatoes for sweet potatoes, this is actually my kids favorite and mine too. Ha!

Hearty Soup: To give the soup more nutrition and texture, I add roughly 1 cup of mixed veggies, such as corn, peas, diced carrot, diced broccoli, shredded cabbage, or diced zucchini.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

I love a comforting bowl of creamy potato soup on its own or serving it with a gooey sourdough grilled cheese sandwich for the perfect combination. I also make a vegan version, vegan grilled cheese sandwich, stuffed with nutritious veggies.

And what is a delicious, thick soup without its dipping partner!? I usually make a loaf of this low-calorie gluten-free bread on weekends to make sandwiches with throughout the week and toast it to dip into soups like this one. My favorite, though, is garlic bread! And there’s nothing easier and tastier than my 20-minute air fryer garlic bread recipe to scoop into the creamy thick potato soup to satisfy my tastebuds!

🧊 Storage Directions

Refrigeration: I store any leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Freezing: I personally don’t freeze soup, as the texture changes upon thawing.

Reheating: To reheat leftover soup, I pour the contents into a bowl and reheat it in the microwave at 1-minute increments until hot, or reheat it in a saucepan on the stovetop over medium heat. You may need to add more milk to reach the right consistency.

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