Vichyssoise (Chilled Leek and Potato Soup)
A silky, creamy soup of leeks and potatoes, blended until smooth and served cold with chopped chives. Elegant, simple, and just as good hot in winter.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Clean the leeks
Slice the leeks into thin rings. Put them in a big bowl of cold water and swish them around to wash out any soil. Lift them out with your hands and drain.
Soften without browning
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the leeks and onion and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often, until very soft. Don't let them brown, or the soup won't be pale and delicate.
Simmer with the potatoes
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Blend until silky
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Add the cream and chill
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Serve cold
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Clean the leeks
Slice the leeks into thin rings. Put them in a big bowl of cold water and swish them around to wash out any soil. Lift them out with your hands and drain.
Soften without browning
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the leeks and onion and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often, until very soft. Don't let them brown, or the soup won't be pale and delicate.
Simmer with the potatoes
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Blend until silky
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Add the cream and chill
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Serve cold
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The Story Behind the Dish
Leek and potato soup is everyday French home cooking. The chilled, creamy version was created around 1917 by Louis Diat, a French chef at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New York.
Diat remembered how his mother and grandmother cooled their hot leek and potato soup with cold milk in summer, near Vichy in central France. He refined it with cream, served it cold and named it after the spa town of his childhood.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It turns two of the cheapest vegetables in the garden into a soup elegant enough for a grand hotel.
💡 Fun Fact
Because it was invented in America, some French chefs still call it 'crème vichyssoise glacée' and argue about whether it counts as French at all.
New York, inspired by Vichy (Auvergne)
46.13°N, 3.43°E
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