Thursday, November 17, 2011

Adventures in Frugality: Potato Soup

This has been a super-busy week for us; more on this later. However, one night I threw together a really nice potato soup that began with a recipe and then I changed most of it. Typical. Here's exactly what I did. Feel free to alter at your pleasure.

Potato Soup
Eight cups water
Six heaping tsp Better than Bouillon chicken (a real measuring tsp, not flatware)
5 red potatoes, peeled and chopped
onion powder to taste
cut-up ham (I had some leftover and I just used that; I didn't even measure it)
1 cup half-and-half
2 1/2 generous handsful of shredded Cheddar

Bring water and bouillon to boil and add potatoes. Cook til tender. Reduce heat to low. Scoop out at least half of the potatoes with some liquid and carefully blend in a blender til smooth. Pour back into soup pot. Add ham, half-and-half, and Cheddar. Stir til cheese is melted and soup is heated through. Serve.

If you happened to have any on hand, sour cream and/or chives would be a nice touch. I pureed half the potatoes because I didn't have any (and never do, actually) dried potato flakes, which so many potato soup recipes use as a thickener.

The girls and I loved this; Himself enjoyed it, but pronounced it "very soupy." He prefers his potato soup thicker and chunkier. If you do, too, simply reduce the water (and bouillon) and skip the pureeing.

Ah, soup. One of the best delights of chilly weather, to my way of thinking.

3 comments:

  1. Oh yum!! Potato soup is the finest of comfort foods - especially went it's a chilly day like today was.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, yum. That sounds good. Do you think whole milk would work in place of 1/2 n 1/2? I might try it and let you know ;)
    And I'd probably use chicken. LOL here I go just changing it all up! Next thing you know, I'll add vegetables. No, I'll stop now (but I'm writing it down lol).
    BTW, we really like Life of Fred. I think your dd will also :) My ds focused more on the story than the math and hasn't retained it as well as we'd like. But dd is doing great with it and she's to Beg. Algebra :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Blossom, I'm sure whole milk would work fine. I had the h-n-h, so I thought I'd use it up. Thanks for the LoF info; I think my dd will like it also!

    ReplyDelete

I love reading comments! And I appreciate the time you take to leave them. Thanks!