Potato soup must be as old as potatoes. It's an accepting soup and you can add all sorts of things to it: bacon, Canadian bacon, chopped ham, leftover chicken, Cheddar cheese, pepper cheese, peas and more. Cold potato soup is called Vichyssoise, the basic recipe with added cream.
Artist Claude Monet always had soup for lunch and dinner. His recipe for potato soup is about as simple as soup gets, with leeks, boiled potatoes and lots of butter. Julia Child also made potato soup and her recipe was published in "Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking."
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Julia didn't like the texture of soup creamed in a blender, according to the Mouth of Wonder Website, and mashed the potatoes and leeks with a fork. Sometimes she put the vegetables through a food mill. Thanks to the invention of the immersion blender, creaming soup is easy today. You may also use a blender. Be extra careful with the hot soup and hold a towel over the lid to keep it from popping off.
Nothing is as comforting as hot soup on a frigid day. Some cooks add heavy cream, sour cream, or creme fraiche to potato soup and garnish it with extra sour cream, watercress, or parsley.
Though Minnesotans have enjoyed an unusually warm fall, cold nights are becoming common. When I got up the other morning and saw the temperature was 30 degrees, I suddenly thought of potato soup. I wanted to make soup, but didn't have any leeks, and didn't want to make another trip to the grocery store. My solution was to make soup from ingredients on hand.
When I say you can make this soup in minutes, I'm not kidding. Once you've cooked the onions the soup comes together in a flash. Monet's recipe calls for half a cup of butter and mine calls for only two tablespoons. To cut the fat even more, I used fat-free half and half and pre-cooked bacon. I didn't have to peel potatoes because I used instant ones. I didn't have to rinse sand from leeks because I used an onion. This is yummy soup.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Two 8-ounce packages of bacon pieces
5-6 cups water
3 chicken bullion cubes
1/2 cup fat-free half and half
2 cups dehydrated (instant) mashed potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
3 scallions, green parts only, chopped
1 cup (or more) sharp Cheddar cheese
Method
Melt butter in soup kettle Add onions and cook until translucent. Add bacon pieces and cook in butter-onion mixture for one minute. Pour water into kettle. Toss in bullion cubes and stir until dissolved. Pour half and half into kettle. Stir in instant potatoes, scraping the bottom of the kettle constantly, and cook over medium heat until soup thickens. If it is too thick for you, add a little more water. Turn heat to lowest setting. Cover soup and simmer for 10-15 minutes to blend flavors. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped scallions and Cheddar cheese. Makes 12 servings.
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