Homemade Irish Vegetable Soup

Homemade Irish vegetable soup is a hearty and warming winter soup for cold days. Root vegetables, a few pantry ingredients and a simple, no-fuss method contribute to the making of this tasty soup that you will love. The fresh, clean flavor of the vegetables shines through with no milk, cream, or flour to make it even slightly heavy on the stomach. Pure goodness in a bowl!

Both instant pot and stovetop instructions are included for convenience.

If you like vegetarian soups, you will love this asparagus soup, another quick and easy recipe. And oh, do check out this pumpkin soup as well!

It’s -34 here in Edmonton today (brr!) and I’m loving this healthy Irish farmhouse vegetable soup right now!

This is a simple and filling soup with some pretty basic ingredients. It’s got potatoes, carrots (look at that lovely orange), turnip, onion, leeks, celery and garlic simmered in vegetable broth and seasoned with just salt and pepper. Oh, and there’s just a little butter in there to make everything taste better. And that’s about it. Exactly what you need to drive away some of this extreme chill. What’s not to love?

Ingredients

Note: exact amounts are mentioned in the recipe card further down

• Butter
• Garlic
• White onions
• Potatoes – Russet potatoes or Yukon Gold
• Carrots
• Turnips – If you don’t have turnips in your fridge, you can leave them out.
• Leeks
• Celery
• Sea salt – Adjust to taste as the vegetable broth typically has salt as well.
• Black pepper – Freshly ground is the best.
• Vegetable broth

Instructions (Instant Pot)

1. Chop and dice all the vegetables. You don’t have to be too precise because everything’s going to be blitzed anyway after the soup is cooked.
2. Melt the butter in the steel insert of your instant pot and add the onion and garlic. Sauté them for a minute and add the rest of the veggies, salt, and pepper.
3. Pour in the vegetable broth and pressure cook on high for 6 minutes. When the soup is cooked, wait for 5 minutes, then release the pressure and remove the lid.
4. Using an immersion blender, puree the vegetables in the liquid until thick and smooth. Adjust the seasoning and serve hot. If you don’t have an immersion blender, wait for the soup to cool down a bit, then puree it in your regular blender.

See how quick and easy that was? With the instant pot and immersion blender in your kitchen, making soup becomes a cinch, honestly. The only step that takes a bit of time is chopping and dicing the vegetables themselves. Apart from this, the soup literally makes itself!

If you don’t have an instant pot, don’t sweat yet. You can easily make this soup in a saucepan too. Here are the stovetop instructions.

Instructions (Stovetop)

1. The prep step remains the same as the instant pot. Chop up the veggies and keep them aside.
2. For cooking the soup, put a large saucepan or dutch oven on medium heat on the stovetop and add the butter. When the butter melts, add the onion and garlic and sauté them for one minute.
3. Add the rest of the veggies, salt, and pepper.
4. Pour in the vegetable broth and let the soup come to a boil.
5. Lower the heat and cook until the veggies soften and become tender (about 25-30 minutes).
6. Using an immersion blender, puree the vegetables in the liquid until thick and smooth. Serve hot.

Serving suggestions

• Serve the soup with some warm, crusty bread. Irish soda bread goes really well, but really, any thick bread will do to sop up all that thick soup.
• Reserve some of the chopped leeks and garnish the soup with them along with more black pepper.
• Want to make a creamy Irish vegetable soup? Add a few swirls of heavy cream after blending the soup to make it richer.
• Add a dash of lemon juice and chilli flakes to the soup for a slight kick. Of course, if you have kids, you can totally leave the lemon and chilli flakes out.

Want a vegan and dairy-free soup? Omit the butter and use the cooking oil of your choice in its place. Olive oil or avocado oil would work well. There’s nothing else that you need to swap out or juggle.

How to store and freeze the soup

This is a very meal-prep, freezer-friendly kind of soup. You can easily make a large batch and portion the leftovers in small airtight containers to have for the rest of the week. Keeps easily in the fridge for up to 5 days.

For longer than 5 days, pour the soup in ziploc bags or freezer-safe containers and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Take care not to add any cream if freezing the soup.