This creamy vegetable soup is a quick and easy one-pot meal that’s perfect for a busy weeknight. It’s made with simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand, and it comes together in under 35 minutes.
Watch the Video
Related: For a more brothy vegetable soup, try our Easy Homemade Vegetable Soup (it’s made with lots of veggies and a light tomato broth).
How to Make the Best Creamy Vegetable Soup
We have been making this soup for years. It’s simple to make, healthy, and comforting. Throw lots of vegetables into a big pot, add stock and herbs, and then simmer until done. Blend with a little cream or coconut milk, and you are done.This creamy veggie soup comes together quickly and it’s easy to adapt for different diets. Make it gluten-free, vegetarian, or vegan. I’ve shared how below.
The real trick to making this soup is cutting all the vegetables a similar size. We start by cooking onions, carrots, and celery in a big pot until softened. Then we add potatoes, garlic, stock, and herbs.
After simmering for 15 minutes, the vegetables will be soft. Remove the herbs (I cannot even count how many times I’ve forgotten a bay leaf!). Then blend the soup until smooth.
At this point, we like to add a splash of cream or half-and-half. You can skip it or use a dairy-free option like coconut milk.
More: If you love creamy soups, take a look at our broccoli cheddar soup. We use a similar method to make it!
Substitutions for Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, and Vegan Diets
This creamy vegetable soup recipe is easy to adapt. Here’s how to substitute for different diets:
- Gluten-free Vegetable Soup: Some store-bought stocks contain gluten. Look for stock or broth that mentions it is gluten-free on the packaging. You could also consider using homemade stock.
- Vegetarian and Vegan Vegetable Soup: Replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock. For the best flavor, we recommend one that’s heavy on mushrooms. Instead of the cream, use coconut milk. You could also add some drained and rinsed white beans to the soup while it simmers. Once blended, they will add to the soup’s creamy texture.
Make Ahead Tips
Refrigerate the soup for up to 3 days. Or, freeze up to 3 months. The soup will become very thick after freezing. When reheating, add more stock or water to thin it out until your desired consistency.
More Easy Soup Recipes
- Easy Sausage and Potato Soup — You will love this easy potato soup recipe with Italian sausage, potatoes, garlic, and kale.
- Simple Ham and Cabbage Soup — This soup with cabbage and ham is hearty, healthy, easy to make, and tastes fantastic.
- Three Ingredient Tomato Soup — You wouldn’t think that three ingredients — butter, onion, and tomato — can come together to make such a velvety and delicious tomato soup, but let me tell you. They can.
- Creamy Homemade Potato Soup — You will love this easy soup with potatoes, veggies, garlic, and a luscious creamy broth.
- Lentil Soup with Lemon and Turmeric — Meet my go-to lentil soup recipe! I make this soup with lentils, carrots, turmeric, and fresh lemon whenever I’m in need of some healthy comfort food.
- Lemony Chicken Vegetable Soup — This lemon chicken and vegetable soup checks all the boxes. It’s hearty, healthy, satisfying, and tastes incredible.
- Roasted Butternut Squash Soup — Butternut squash is roasted on top of garlic cloves and fresh thyme then blended with stock into a silky smooth butternut squash soup.
Recipe updated, originally posted December 2011. Since posting this in 2011, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Creamy Vegetable Soup
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This creamy vegetable soup can be refrigerated up to 3 days and kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
1 large onion
1 pound (450g) carrots, peeled (4 to 5 medium)
4 celery sticks
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 pound (450g) thin-skinned potatoes (3 medium)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
3 cups (710ml) vegetable broth or chicken broth
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup (60ml) half-and-half, cream, or coconut milk
Directions
1Chop the onion, carrots, and celery into 1/2-inch chunks.
2Chop the potatoes into 1/2-inch chunks and set aside from the other veggies.
3Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Toss the onion, carrots, and celery around in the oil. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and add the red pepper flakes.
4Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables sweat, soften, and smell sweet, 5 to 10 minutes.
5Stir in the potatoes, garlic halves, bay leaves, and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes. Add more oil if the pot seems dry.
6Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until you can easily pierce the potatoes with a fork, about 15 minutes.
7Remove the soup from the heat. Take out the bay leaves and thyme sprigs and discard them.
8Use an immersion blender, stand blender, or food mill to puree the soup until smooth.
9Stir in the cream. Taste for seasoning and adjust with more salt and pepper if necessary.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Vegan vegetable soup: Use either homemade or store-bought vegetable broth, and look for one heavy on mushrooms for the most flavor. Add full-fat coconut milk or cashew cream at the end.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.We did include 1/4 cup of half and half in the calculations and assumed 4 servings. We omitted salt from the calculations since you will need to add to your tastes.
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This soup is mouthwatering ngl, I didn’t quite follow the recipe (haven’t had garlic at home) yet it was still fire
Amazing taste and so easy to make.
Hi Lisa, I am so happy you enjoyed it!