Gordon Ramsay’s potato soup is a clear, golden broth infused with the flavour of baked potato skins, served with homemade potato gnocchi, sour cream and chives. It takes about 2 hours including the baking, but most of that is hands-off oven time.
This recipe appears as “Baked Potato Soup with Sour Cream” in Gordon Ramsay’s Cooking for Friends, where he writes, “This soup was inspired by one I had many years ago at the acclaimed El Bulli restaurant in Spain. The clear broth is infused with the flavor of baked potatoes and served with homemade potato gnocchi: a surprising and delightful mouthful of flavors and textures.”
The technique that makes this completely different from any other potato soup: instead of boiling potatoes in stock, he bakes them first, peels off the skins, crisps the skins in the oven, then simmers them in stock for 30-40 minutes. The skins carry all the roasted, earthy potato flavour into the broth while the flesh goes into handmade gnocchi. Nothing is wasted.
Gordon Ramsay Potato Soup Recipe
Course: SoupsCuisine: American, BritishDifficulty: Easy4-6
30
minutes1
40
minutes356
El Bulli-inspired baked potato soup from Gordon Ramsay’s Cooking for Friends. Crisp baked potato skins infuse the broth with a deep, roasted flavour while the flesh is turned into light Parmesan gnocchi that sit in the bowl. A completely different approach to potato soup: clear and refined rather than thick and creamy.
Ingredients
- Soup:
4 large baking potatoes, about 1 3/4 lbs (800g) in total, scrubbed and dried
3 cups (720ml) clear chicken or vegetable stock
2/3 cup (160ml) sour cream
Handful of fresh chives, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Gnocchi:
14 oz (about 2 heaped cups / 400g) baked potato flesh (from above)
1 cup (125g) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 1/2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Directions
- Bake the potatoes: Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Wrap the potatoes in a large sheet of foil. Bake until tender when pierced with a skewer, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Peel and dry the skins: Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 300F (150C). Wearing rubber gloves to protect your hands, peel the skins off the potatoes while still hot. Spread the skins out on a baking sheet and bake until dry and crisp, 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off the oven but leave the skins inside to continue drying. The crisper the skins, the more flavour they release into the stock.
- Make the gnocchi dough: Mash the hot potato flesh using a potato ricer, then spread out on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and let cool completely. You need 14 oz (about 2 heaped cups). Mix in the flour, salt, Parmesan and olive oil. Slowly incorporate the beaten egg until the mixture comes together to form a dough. You may not need all the egg. Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.
- Shape the gnocchi: Divide into four balls. Roll each ball into a long sausage about 1/2 inch (1cm) thick. Cut into 1/2 inch (1cm) pieces. Roll each piece lightly between your palms to neaten the shape.
- Blanch the gnocchi: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and have ready a bowl of ice water. Blanch the gnocchi in batches until they float to the surface, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge into the ice water. Drain well, then toss in a bowl with a generous drizzle of olive oil and some seasoning.
- Infuse the broth: Bring the stock to a boil in a pot with a little salt and pepper. Tip in the crisp potato skins. Cover the pot and gently simmer until the skins have imparted their colour and flavour to the stock, 30 to 40 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean pot. Discard the skins.
- Serve: When ready to serve, reheat the gnocchi in the potato-infused broth and simmer for a minute. Divide among warm bowls and garnish with spoonfuls of sour cream and minced chives.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay infuse the stock with potato skins instead of blending the flesh into the soup?
Blending potato into stock gives you a thick, starchy puree. That’s what most potato soups are, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but this recipe does something entirely different. The skins carry a concentrated, earthy potato flavour that dissolves into the broth during the 30 to 40 minute simmer.
The result is a clear, light soup that tastes deeply of potato without any of the heaviness. It’s the approach Ramsay picked up at El Bulli, where the philosophy was about capturing the essence of an ingredient rather than just using it in bulk.
Why do the skins need to be dried and crisped before going into the stock?
Wet, freshly peeled skins would add moisture to the stock without releasing much flavour. Drying and crisping them in the oven removes that water and concentrates the flavour compounds in the skin.
Crisp skins also break down more readily during the simmer, so they infuse the stock faster and more completely. Think of it like toasting spices before grinding them: the heat transforms what’s already there into something more intense. This is the step that makes or breaks the soup.
Why make gnocchi from the potato flesh instead of just serving bread?
The gnocchi turn the potato flesh into something with texture and substance that sits in the broth rather than dissolving into it. You get soft, pillowy bites of potato in every spoonful, which gives the clear soup body without thickening it.
It also means nothing is wasted. The skins flavour the broth, the flesh becomes gnocchi, and you’ve used every part of the potato for a different purpose. If you want a simpler potato soup where the flesh does the heavy lifting, Ramsay’s leek and potato soup takes the more traditional puree approach.
Can the gnocchi be made ahead of time?
Yes, and it actually helps. After blanching and shocking them in ice water, toss them with olive oil and store in the fridge for up to a day. They’ll hold their shape and won’t stick together.
When you’re ready to serve, just drop them into the hot infused broth for a minute to warm through. Making them ahead also spreads out the work, since the baking, skin-crisping and gnocchi-shaping stages are the most hands-on parts of this recipe.
How is this different from Ramsay’s other potato soups?
He has three very different approaches across his books. The Healthy Appetite version is a rustic kale, chorizo and potato soup simmered in water with no stock or cream at all. It’s chunky, simple and takes about 20 minutes.
The Make It Easy version is a refined frisée and potato soup with tarragon, pureed smooth and finished with cream. Ramsay calls it “delicate and sensuous” and suggests topping it with poached quail’s eggs and caviar. This baked potato soup sits between the two: elegant in technique but comforting in flavour, with that clear broth setting it apart from both.
Why use a potato ricer instead of mashing by hand?
A ricer pushes the potato through tiny holes, which breaks it into fine, even strands without overworking the starch. That gives you a light, fluffy texture in the gnocchi.
Mashing by hand or using a food processor activates the starch and turns the potato gluey, which makes the gnocchi dense and chewy rather than pillowy. If you don’t have a ricer, push the potato through a fine sieve with the back of a spoon. It takes longer but gives the same result. The same principle applies when making mash for Ramsay’s butternut squash soup, where smooth texture depends on how gently you handle the flesh.
I’m Ava Taylor. I’m A Self-taught Home Cook Who Loves Gordon Ramsay Recipes. I Try Every Dish In My Small Apartment Kitchen And Tweak It Until It Works. I Write Clear Steps With Simple Words So Anyone Can Follow. I Share Honest Wins, Mistakes, And Quick Tips To Help You Cook With Confidence.