I came across a potato cheese soup recipe on another cooking blog but made several changes to it for dinner tonight... it turned out delicious. Very filling, and my husband had thirds! My kids liked it too.6-8 large baking potatoes
1 stick butter
chopped carrots (see "tips" for quantities)
chopped onions
chopped celery
1/3 c flour
salt & pepper
3 bay leaves
Emeril's Essence Seasoning
Season Salt
2 c milk
4 c chicken broth (I used 2 cans which was about 3 1/2 cups but that was fine)
8-12 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
8 oz grated cheddar cheese (I did two handfuls)
1 c sour cream
Wash potatoes, prick with a fork, wrap in foil and bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender. Melt half of the stick of butter in a large soup pot. Add chopped onion, carrot, celery, & spices and sautee over medium heat until carrot is nearly cooked (not too soft but not crunchy either). Then add the rest of the butter, let it melt and then add the 1/3 c flour, stir and cook for one minute. Add milk and chicken broth slowly, whisking to incorporate the roux (butter/flour) into the liquid. Cook on medium-high until it comes to a boil. Meanwhile, peel the baked potatoes and either mash or cube them, depending on how you want the soup's texture to be. Stir in potatoes, bacon, and cheese; then taste to see if it needs more salt/pepper. Just before serving add one cup sour cream.
Tips:
- I mash about half the potatoes and cube the other half; that way the mashed potatoes thicken the soup but there are still enough chunks for a nice texture. If you decide ahead of time that you won't be mashing any of the potatoes, add more flour in the beginning, up to 2/3 c.
- Spices are of course to taste. I put in about a teaspoon of salt at the beginning, and taste it later to see if it needs more. Bacon will add a salty flavor, so you might not need as much salt if you put in a lot of bacon. The cheese will add saltiness too, so don't oversalt it in the beginning. I put in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Essence, and several dashes each of pepper & season salt.
- As for the vegetables... the recipe I adapted this from didn't call for any onion/carrots/celery so I just guess on quantities (and actually didn't put in any celery since my husband doesn't like it, but it would've tasted really good in there!) I had about two big handfuls of carrots and about 1/3 of a chopped onion.
- A soup like this really holds the heat, so if you turn off the burner and then stir in the sour cream at the end, the sour cream will help it to cool off just a bit before you serve it.
4 comments:
This sounds SO yummy. Oh, I might just have to try it this week!
Thanks for sharing - we really like this kind of thing. I have made the mistake of too much salt added in the beginning on a potato corn bacon chowder. the next time I made a cream soup my kids even remembered and asked if it was the salty soup again! And really, I can cook and I know that bacon and cheese adds salt but potatoes absorb salt and I really wasn't thinking the whole thing through...I mean, the trick to an over salted soup is to ADD potatoes to it to help with the saltiness. What are you supposed to to do with a potato soup? Add more potatoes? That really wouldn't work.
I hit a homerun with your soup tonight! Everyone loved it (except JJ who thinks he doesn't like anything, but once he tries it, he loves it).
I had to improvise on the Emril's seasoning, but it turned out great. I was hoping to have left overs - I had a little bit.
This continues to be a favorite in our home. Last night I made bread bowls and that just added to the popularity of this soup!
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