Grandmother’s Potato Soup Recipe
Potato Soup Recipe – My Grandmother Verdie’s Potato Soup recipe makes an old-fashioned, easy, comforting soup recipe.
Before there was such a thing as loading a potato soup with bacon, cheese, onions, my Grandmother Verdie made her potato soup very simply – with potatoes, milk, butter, and salt and pepper. If my sister Wendy and I knew that Grandmother made her potato soup for supper, we’d beg to be able to eat supper with her. With one bite, it is so easy to understand why! 🙂
The Best Potato Soup Recipe
You could add all sorts of things to this potato soup if you’d like, but I recommend starting with this simple, basic recipe and go from there. Most times, we would rather stick with this version than add a lot of other ingredients, like leeks, onions, and what not.
Ya know, simple really is best most of the time, isn’t it?
How to Make The Best Potato Soup Recipe
To make Grandmother’s Potato Soup Recipe, you’ll begin by scrubbing your potatoes clean, peeling, and then cutting them into about 2-inch chunks. Place the potatoes into a large soup pot (I use my Dutch oven) and cover with clean water.
Cook over medium heat until the potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and drain away the water from the potatoes.
Add your whole milk and butter to the potatoes and place back on medium heat. Allow the milk to bubble slightly around the edges of the soup pot, about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
To customize the consistency and texture of this potato soup recipe, you can serve it as shown with tender chunks of potatoes or you can make a smooth potato soup by using an immersion blender in your soup pot until it reaches the consistency you prefer. But really, the chunkiness is simply perfect and I definitely recommend that you give it a try!
If you like a smoother textured potato soup with all the trimmings, you may want to check out my Loaded Potato Soup Recipe as well.
Here’s Grandmother’s Potato Soup Recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!
Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (about 6 medium) Russet potatoes scrubbed, peeled, and chopped
- water
- 3 cups whole milk
- 4 tablespoons butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cover potatoes with water in a large soup pot.
- Cook over medium heat until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
- Add milk and butter to the potatoes. Place back on medium heat and allow milk to bubble slightly around the edges of the soup pot, about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and ladle into soup bowls.
- Serve with salt and pepper to taste.
Nutrition
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Orignally published 2011.
I love potato soup. Its my favorite 🙂 I’ve never made it before. I need to try your recipe. Looks so easy 🙂
Love a good bowl of potato soup! Especially when there are nice big chunks of potato in there : )
Oh thank you for posting this. I’ve been craving a good homemade potato soup recipe! I will be making this for sure!
I love potato soup! It’s one of my all time favorites. Normally I use my grandmother’s recipe, but I love the simplicity of yours. I’ll have to give it a try.
I daresay…maybe even *I* could make this successfully?? 🙂 Beautiful recipe girl!
I love potato soup…it’s definitely one of my favorite meals during the winter months. Your recipe looks glorious!
Making potato soup is a lot easier than I thought! I agree, sometimes simple is best, and this is perfect for a weeknight meal.
I adore potato soup! Can’t wait to try this one!
Sounds simple and perfect! 🙂
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Yummy! I love potato soup!! I love your recipe! I always add one diced onion, one teaspoon minced garlic and about a 1/2 cup chopped mild green chile! I cook these all with the potatoes. I am going to make this for my grandkids tomorrow!!
Try it with one can of evaporated milk added in. This what my Mother did and what I do. It gives it the best flavor.
That’s what my dad and my grandma always did the evaporated milk and a little onion
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This is the recipe that I have used for 30 years. The only difference is I always crack a few eggs into the soup while it is boiling. Don’t stir it hard enough to break the yolks and cook it long enough that the eggs are hard cooked. Makes it yummy and a little thicker.
Hi Gina,
I have never tried it that way – sounds delicious! We’ve enjoyed this soup for as long as I can remember when my grandmother and my Mama made it. Such a comforting and delicious soup! Thanks so much for sharing this Gina! xo
I’ve tried recipes for potato soup that have a lot more stuff added and didn’t like them. Need to try this version! Simple is often best.
It is such a simple, comforting soup and I hope you enjoy it, Katherine! Thanks so much! xo
can u use can milk if u dont have whole milk
Hi Angela,
I’ve not ever made it with canned milk. I hope you enjoy it!
How much can soup fo you use
This is the recipe I grew up on. Except we had onions and grandma sometimes put cheese and bacon on top. We also have a sour soup recipe that is similar.
Thanks so much for sharing that! I’m sure you have fond memories of your grandmother’s soup!
Excellent! Why mess with simple and delicious?!
Thanks so much, Rhonda! xo
This is exactly how my grandma and momma made this ‘delicacy”! I learned from the best! Thank you, Robyn ❤️????????
You certainly did, Deb! Grandmothers and Mamas are great cooking teachers! Thanks so much! xo
Making this tonight. Can’t wait to eat.
I hope you love it as much as we always have! xo
This is how my mom and my grandmother made potato soup, only we added onions and celery and left a bit of potato water in with the milk. So good.
So delicious, isn’t it, Karen?! Thanks!
Love your recipe!
Elderly neighbor lady when i was growing up in the appalachian mountains made her potato soup like this but would throw in celery seed and it gave it that oomph that really made this soup yummy. I Love potato soup and her soup was and still is the best i have found! The old ways were simply the BEST!!!
Aren’t they?! Thanks so much Jeannie!
This is how my mom made potato soup. Love it! I like it so much more than the thick, cheesy soup offered in restaurants today. Simple and delicious.
So good isn’t it Sharon?! Thanks so much! xo
Robyn,
What is the conversion to a crockpot?!
Thank you!
My mom use to make a recipe exactly like this growing up and has since altered it. Thank you for posting because this was exactly what I was looking for.
I hope you enjoy it, Jane! Thanks so much! xo
Can you use fat free milk??
Hi Denise,
You can use fat-free milk in this recipe, but do note that you’ll not have the creamy, rich soup photographed (or that Grandmother always served! 🙂 ). But, I totally understand scaling back on the full-fat dairy, if you’d like. I hope you enjoy it! xo
Made this recipe. It’s exactly the one that my mom makes. It’s crazy with an eating the soup since I was a child I’m 40 years old now. Simply wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
Isn’t it delicious, Nichole?! It is such a comforting soup – I’m glad to know you enjoy it too! Thanks! xo
This is exactly the same recipe my mother made for years. THe only difference was occasionally she would throw diced onion in when the potatoes cooked just for added flavor. I always loved to then crush all the saltines in the bowl and ladle this in and make a thick chunky bowl of heaven. If I wasn’t diabetic I think I would make some right now since I am sick with a head cold. It sounds so warm and yummy right now
I hope you feel better soon, Virginia! This is such a comforting soup – wish I could send a bowl to you! xo
This is exactly what I grew up on but my mom served it as a side dish with less liquid and added more liquid or potatoes the next day for potato soup if there was even a little bit left. Add cornbread and yum, it was the best. My second husband had never had this (we are in our later 50’s) and I was so surprised and happy that I could make it and introduce it to him.
So delicious, isn’t it Kim?! 🙂 Thanks! xo
Hey Robyn, my Mom made this recipe the same except with celery too & a little chicken base for the water & didn’t drain it! Mom made noodles with it 1-2 eggs, salt & flour, roll out but (not thin) cut into small noodles boil then then add to the soup … yummy, yummy, yummy!!!!
I have been looking for this recipe. My dad made this soup all winter (and I think his mother made it before him). I can’t call him and ask him for the recipe anymore, but this is exactly what I needed.
Thank you!
So glad to hear that you found it and hope you enjoy it as much as we do, Glessie! Thanks!
Wonderful,seems to me everyone wants fluff,basic is best
This is a delicious simple – and oh so comforting – potato soup the way my Grandmother made it. I must say it is one of the soups I crave most as soon as it starts to get a little chilly outside!
I’m glad to hear that you enjoy it, Charlie! Thanks!
Like my grandma always made also, even though she passed when I was 3 1/2 I still remember this soup!! I make it all the time and my husband and ours girls perfer this simple recipe over any I have tried to doctor up.
Thanks so much Ruthie!
Love this potato soup it is simple and the BEST!♥️
It’s always been one of my favorites too, Mare! Simple and delicious, isn’t it?! So glad to hear that you enjoyed it too! xo
My mother made hers very similar to this except she would add roast pieces to hers that she cooked before starting the potato soup.. Then we dipped buttered saltine crackers into the soup.. it was so good….
Such a tasty soup! Very good with some crackers! Thanks Carmen!
I have been searching everywhere for the chunky potato soup my mom used to make and this is it. Simple no cheese, bacon, ham, celery, or grated potatoes. I don’t want to drink my potato soup through a straw. This is perfect. Thank you so much for sharing.
So happy you enjoyed it Dennis! Thanks!
I forgot to give you 5 stars. I wish I could give you 10 stars. Thank you so much
Thanks Dennis!
This is exactly how my grand mother made potato soup (though sometimes she would add a bit of onion) and it was the best! Not fancy, just good.
Hi Katy,
I think this is the best too! Simple, wholesome and delicious! Thanks!
This soup brought back so many childhood memories!! It is simply, comforting, and delicious!!
Thanks Tamara! xo
Simple is best! I add a bit of chopped sweet onion and celery with salt and pepper to taste. I do not drain , but save the stock and add some butter and cream. I let it refrigerate for a bit to blend then heat with a bit of water or milk.
Thanks for your receipe. It restored sanity to simple, delicious, tummy warming potato making. I want my grandchild to look back on a cold winters night over a steaming bowl of this soup and remember their Nana and Grandad!
My mom made the exact same recipe and added garlic (she was born and raised in Italy – garlic was a staple) and fresh green beans! She called it “Poor Man’s Soup”. Delicious!
My wife was able to come home after a two week hospital stay and she needs to eat. I made her this soup, and it had her eating. She’s a farm girl and this,was perfect. Thanks so much!
I hope your wife is doing ok and is much better! It does my heart good to hear that you made this and she was able to enjoy it upon coming home from the hospital. It is a definite comfort food for me as I remember my grandmother making it for us. Thank you for sharing this with me and please give my best wishes to your wife. 🙂
My mom and grandma made something very similar. Fry up 1 pound bacon chopped and 1 minced onion. add peeled potatoes and barely cover with water and simmer till potatoes are tender. Mash potatoes somewhat leave some chunks and add milk, salt and pepper to taste and to thickness you want. Simmer till all is warm and flavors fused together. YUMMY!!
Can I use 1/2 & 1/2 instead of milk?
I have some potatoes ready to sprout. thought I’d make soup. This is going to taste exactly like the potato soup my Mom made…for which I have no recipe. Simple. Beautiful. Delicious. (She added hard boiled eggs…the only difference.)
I’m excited for you to try it Charlene! It’s delicious – hope you enjoy it! Thanks! xo
Oh my gosh, this is the first time I have seen this soup recipe outside of my immediate family. My grandma made this but added chopped onion and diced celery. My dad loved it and grandma taught my mom to make it. Grandma said it was a cheap meal during the depression and it was good for Fridays when they ate meatless meals. Our grandmas knew a good meal didn’t have to be expensive.
It’s a delicious soup isn’t it Debbie?! xo
it’d delicious. I grew up with this soup, although my dad would leave the water and add a can of evaporated milk, salt and PEPPER. ♡
Thanks so much Dawn! One of our favorites!