Potato Soup

There are plenty of potato soup recipes floating around out there.  I've tried many of them, but this one is my favorite; in part because it's so simple to make and tastes so good!  Perfect to serve up on a cold winter day.  You can serve it as a main course, or pair it with my ham and cheese buns if you are feeding a crowd.

3 1/2 c. potatoes
1/3 c. celery
1/2 c. onion
3 1/4 c. water
2 tsp. chicken bouillon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
5 Tbsp. butter
5 Tbsp. flour
2 c. milk
ham or bacon (optional)

Start out with 3 1/2 cups of cubed potatoes. If you're a Costco shopper like me, that will be about 2 very large potatoes or else approximately 3 or 4 regular size potatoes.  Any kind of potato will work in this recipe--I've used red, gold, and your basic russet potatoes.  When you use red potatoes, feel free to leave the skin on; it's one less step, which means your soup will be ready sooner! :)

As usual, I doubled the recipe, so I used 5 giant russet potatoes...which was a bit more than 7 cups; closer to 8 cups, but it's okay if you have extra potatoes in your potato soup.  I actually prefer it that way!  Go ahead and peel the potatoes (unless you're using the red-skinned kind).

Next, you want to dice your potatoes into bite-sized pieces.  They don't have to be exact, but keep in mind that if you make them too big, they might be hard to eat and if you make them too small, they might turn into mush.  You can see the size that I dice my potatoes into for this recipe.  Because the ingredients are diced, the soup cooks up quickly--smaller pieces of potato cook much faster than large pieces.

The first half of my potatoes in a measuring cup.

Pour the diced potatoes into a large pot.

Next, chop up the onion and celery.  If you don't feel like chopping up onion, go ahead and use some onion powder...or omit the onion altogether if you prefer.

Go ahead and add the celery and onions to the potatoes.

Next, pour in the water.  Turn the burner on to high and bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and allow the veggies to simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.

While you wait for the soup to boil, measure out the chicken bouillon, salt, and pepper.  I am not a fan of using bouillon due to the heavy salt content, but I use it in this recipe for the extra flavor it provides.

I place the seasonings into a little glass bowl that can easily be poured into the soup mixture when it's time.

Now it's time to get the creamy part of the soup cooking.  This is pretty much a thin version of my white sauce recipe, minus any seasonings.  Start out by melting the butter in a medium sized saucepan.

Add in the flour, and stir.

Next, add the milk.

Stir it well and allow it to cook on medium-low heat until it begins to thicken up just a bit.  Don't expect it to thicken up very much; this is a thin white sauce.

You can see how runny the sauce is when it's done.

By this time, the potatoes should be boiling and have cooked through.

Add the seasonings that you set aside earlier and stir them in.

Finally, you take the white sauce and add it to the potato mixture.

Stir it up, then allow the soup to simmer a few more minutes until everything is heated through.  If you want to add ham to your soup, this would be the time to do it.  I prefer bacon over ham, but I don't add the bacon to the soup or else the previously crispy bacon becomes soggy.  Add it as a topping to your bowl of soup at the end when you are serving it up, if you want to use it.  (Unless you like soggy bacon; then by all means, toss it in at this point.)

Unfortunately, I did not have any bacon on hand to add to my soup, so I dressed it up a bit by adding shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.

That's all there is to it! :)