Perfect Potato Soup

By Cdreamgirl

Ingredients

• 6 slices Thin Bacon, Cut Into 1-inch Pieces
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 3 whole Carrots, Scrubbed Clean And Diced
• 3 stalks Celery, Diced
• 6 whole Small Russet Potatoes, Peeled And Diced
• 8 cups Low Sodium Chicken Or Vegetable Broth
• 3 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt, More To Taste
• Black Pepper To Taste
• 1/2 teaspoon Cajun Spice Mix
• 1 teaspoon Minced Fresh Parsley
• 1 cup Grated Cheese Of Your Choice

Details

Servings 12
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 30mins
Adapted from thepioneerwoman.com

Preparation

Step 1

Enter your email address:

Here’s how I make it:

Throw the bacon into a soup pot over medium heat…

And stir it around until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp.

Pour off most of the bacon grease from the pot, but leave a little in the pot for health and happiness in 2013.

Throw the veggies in the pot over medium heat and let them start cooking.

PO-TAY-TOES? Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a STEW?

Throw the potatoes into the pot with the veggies and stir them all together. Let them cook for about 5 minutes or so, just to get the potatoes started.

Add plenty of salt (the potatoes need it!), and please try not to be overly impressed with my flawless manicure.

Next, add plenty of pepper.

Finally, add a bunch (about 6 to 8 cups) low sodium chicken broth…

Then bring it to a boil and let it cook for about ten minutes, till the potatoes are starting to get tender.

While it’s cooking, mix together some milk and flour and whisk it till it’s smooth.

Pour it into the soup, then let it cook for another five minutes, until it’s got a little more body to it.

And pour it into the blender (or food processor…or you can use an immersion blender!)

When I’m putting something hot in a blender, I only fill it about 2/3 full because it’ll expand as it purees and you don’t want soup all over the neighbor’s house.

Blend it until it’s totally smooth and luscious…

Then pour it into the pot with the un-pureed soup. This’ll result in the perfect potato soup consistency! The best of both worlds! Have your cake and eat it, too!

(You can do half-and-half instead…but do add one or the other. Sends the soup into the heavens.)

Stir it around over low heat to make sure it’s thoroughly heated, and use this opportunity to taste it and adjust the seasonings.

In addition to a little extra salt and pepper, I also added some Cajun spice for a nice flavor and just a teeny hint of spice.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: If you want your potato soup to be pure and unadulterated in color, just leave the carrots out. I happen to love the golden brown color the carrots bring to the mix, but the onions and celery alone would add great flavor.

And add it in.

To serve it up, sprinkle on a little extra parsley before adding some of the grated cheese…

You can also add sliced green onions, a dollop of sour cream—anything you want!

Cajun Spice Mix

Add bacon pieces to a soup pot over medium heat and cook bacon until crisp and fat is rendered. Remove the bacon from the pot and set it aside. Pour off most of the grease, but do not clean the pot.

Return the hot to medium-high heat and add the onions, carrots, and celery. Stir and cook for 2 minutes or so, then add the diced potatoes. Cook for 5 minutes, seasoning with salt, pepper, and Cajun spice.

Pour in the broth and bring it to a gentle boil. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are starting to get tender. Whisk together the flour and the milk, then pour into the soup and allow the soup to cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove half to 2/3 the soup and blend in a blender/food process until completely smooth. Pour it back into the soup pot and stir to combine. Let it heat back up as you taste for seasonings, adding more of what it needs. Stir in cream, then stir in parsley, reserving a little for garnish.

(Extra potato, peeled, diced & boiled)

1. Simmer the water, salt & vegetables together partially covered for 40-50 minutes.

2. Mash the vegetables with a fork or process with an immersion blender.

4. Reheat to simmer. Turn off heat and stir in whipping cream and decorate with herbs.

Lisa’s notes: we stir in extra cooked potato chunks after processing with the immersion blender. We like to have chunks of potatoes in our soup. We sometimes garnish with cheddar cheese & bacon. We love it with chives, but if we don’t have any that is good also. I usually use yellow onions, but true diehards will prefer leeks.

I love Julia’s recipe, but love to begin with sauteed, crumbled chorizo. Julia would never approve, but the rendered fat adds SO MUCH flavor!

And as a non-soup eater, I had no idea this is how you make soup. With a blender?! Fun. My husband loves potato soup but maybe I’ll whip this up for one day when the blender’s out anyway and we have potatoes that need usin’!

i only say this since you mentioned you were a non-soup-eater… she wasn’t kidding about only filling the blender 2/3 of the way. it will explode on you if its too full. unfortunately i’m speaking from experience!

If you take off the little cap thingie at the top of the blender, cover the opening with a clean dish towel (and hold onto it!) it solves the problem. Read it in a magazine and it works. PS I’m making this soup today!

1.seven pieces of bacon – 6 for recipe and 1 to eat while making it 2. I have a grocery trip planned today. I will have a hard time passing by soup ingredients so we eat the leftover blackeyes from yesterday. Of course, I could make the soup tomorrow. 3. You are a working mommy and wife. Your nails are ok.

Robyn Stone | Add a Pinch

Mmm! Mmm! Mmmm! Nothing beats a big ole bowl of soup in the winter and potato soup? Oh my, YES!

hmmm…I’m not sure why you would think this is too much work. It’s no more work than any other soup. I just made it and it is YUMMY and easy. I used an immersion blender so I didn’t have to dirty my blender. A one-pot meal! And very frugal and satisfying.

I make potato soup, but don’t have a blender, so never did that part. It does make it look so much better. It is so cold here, today would be a good day for this. You always make me laugh and trust me I need a good laugh. Love ya

I just use a “tater masher” and mash up my soup. I don’t really mind the “chunkiness”. However, I may have to try the blender and see if it makes enough of a change in the texture to convert me ;). I do believe I’m going to cook this tonight since I have a couple spare kids to feed (my younger brother and sister). A great way to stretch a food buck!!!

Lacey- Until a few years ago I never used a blender for potato soup. It really does make a difference…velvety smooth with the occasional chunk of potato. Yum, it’s worth trying.

you can always put the bacon in the freezer for 10 minutes or so before you cut it up – it makes it firmer and less messy to cut up.

Make sure your knife is sharp enough. Or, use scissors.

You might try a different brand or type of bacon. I wound up with some that was too thin one time! Didn’t cut up well, or even fry as well in my opinion. Also, make sure you pull off all the slices together and cut immediately after taking out of the refrigerator so it will be cold. I have been known to take a package of bacon out of the freezer and slice just enough slices off the end that it looks like about the right amount, instead of taking off the required number of slices.

2. I don’t fuss with flour and milk and cream or blenders to thicken my soup. For each quart of chicken stock I start with, I temper and add 16 oz. of whole fat, European style sour cream to the soup. Standard sour cream has gelatin, and you just can’t get the lumps out. It’ll still taste fine, but the little curds mean it doesn’t look as nice. To temper sour cream, plop it in a bowl and start adding ladles of hot stock and mix it all up until its all warmed up. Then stir it all back into the soup.

Goof thing it’s HER recipe and not yours! I don’t understand why people have to critique and add their negative $.02. If you don’t like it, don’t make it. Right? Right!

@ Crystal, at least Geeklady made it and gave her honest opinion of it’s taste! What is this comment section for in the first place, to blow smoke up PW butt? Silly me, I believed it’s for honest reviews of the recipe and give helpful hints. I personally appreciate and would rather read reviews on how the recipes taste than waste my time wading through all these useless posts of how great it looks, that’s obvious, but does it taste good?!

The only thing that could make this better would be to fry extra bacon so you could eat a couple of pieces while making the rest of the soup

This looks fabulous. My family has become soup addicts. I loved your corn chowder, with the cheese of course. I added more bacon….because bacon makes everything better. And I have the privilege of hearing that quote every time I mention potato to my husband…the hobbit wannabe.

My sister-in-law always put some crumbled pork saugage in potato soup, just adds a little more flavor.

I make it very much the same, one thing different that I like very much is instead of Cajun spice use the spice mix one would use for Maryland blue crabs, so good, gives it a bit of a chowder flavor

You should try adding a small can of cream of chicken soup and or a can of cream of celery soup. I make it exactly like yours, but I add in a small can of both of these! It sends it over the top! Gives it that mmmmm what is that flavor? pop. Oh and I also sometimes add shredded sharp cheddar, (my hubbs is like Pesky Tim won’t eat cheese unless it’s cooked). And I personally add a few dashes of hot sauce. Nothing warms you up better, like good ole bowl of tator soup!

I know everyone has different tastes. But No, No, No, NO! IMHO, this soup is fantastic as is. The Cajun seasoning gives it that MMMM pop. “cream of what-evers” is already “soup” why add a factory made soup in your homemade goodness? then you are just spoiling the whole recipe. why go through the bother of everything else? granted I do like canned soup every now and then, especially if I am sick. But leave this recipe alone, It is fantastic!!!

This recipe looks yummy, although I don’t own a blender. I hope it will taste just as good with out in. I’m thinking of investing in an immersion blender. I had Pioneer Woman marathon weekend! It was wonderful.

Do you own a potato masher? You could use that to mash some of the chunks or you could even use a large spoon and mash some against the side of the pot. Technically, you don’t have to mash or blend any of it. It does thicken the soup a little more and slightly change the texture but it isn’t necessary. She does it because she doesn’t like that many chunks of vegtables. If you don’t mind them then just leave it alone and eat it. It will taste the same.

I use my cooking shears to cut my bacon up into little pieces. Try it sometime…much easier for me. And my teenagers like their potato soup thick and chunky…sometimes I add a package of loaded baked potato soup to thicken.

I think I just might have to make that soup. It looks amazing.

I make a soup like this that does not incude bacon but does include Velveeta. My prep time has been slashed significantly by using a Vidalia Chop Wizard. It quickly makes uniform cubes of the vegetables.

And this recipe is very similar to the Copy Kat Recipe for the Cheesy Potato Soup I love at Salt Grass Steak House. Love a good potato soup! I like to use a potato masher and leave a few chunks of potato in mine though. And I HAVE to have a lot more bacon. I love bacon. Each to his/her own preferences. That is what is so great about Rees recipes, they are ez to make and ez to adapt to our own tastes.

I’m lactose intolerant too, and happy to report that soy or almond milk will work fine. Just make sure to get one that is plain (not vanilla) and says UNSWEETENED on the front. Or check the ingredients: most “plain” varieties are actually sweetened, usually with cane juice.

Alternately, skip the dairy entirely and just use chicken stock — still delicious, and smashing or blending some of the potatoes will give it a nice creamy texture.

I didn’t have cream on hand so I used coconut milk instead of the cream, and it can be used instead of the milk. It can be a good cream substitute in some recipes. Our family was milk free for 6 years due to milk allergies. Rice milk is the best overall milk substitute and is especially good in mashed potatoes. Just add extra salt to offset the the sweet flavor of the rice milk. An added benefit to coconut milk is that it can be added early in the cooking process and won’t curdle. Adding it early also will greatly reduce or obliterate the coconut flavor, and you are left with just a rich cream/milk flavor.

I kept waiting for the butter, where’s the butter?? I know there is that yummy bacon grease but come on, toss a chunk of butter in there!! I love this recipe and will try it for I love Potato Soup and eat it all 4 seasons. I put a tablespoon or more of the cheese in a jar with hot peppers in my bowl of hot soup for the extra kick. It’s all good anyway you want to fix it, I don’t use the flour either for I toss my cornbread in the soup and that makes it nice and thick. Never put carrots or celery in my soup but will for this is another way of getting more veggies that we need.

You could skip the purée and just make a white sauce with cheddar cheese. It thickens it up and adds texture and a nice color.

Chipped polish happens in the real world. And I love your hands! And I bet your family loves them, too! Love you for not letting the little imperfections of life keep you from posting and adding the wonderful close-up photos!

btw without looking it up thats a Two Towers quote…Samwise Gamgee to Gollum when he brings back conies and wants to eat them raw and Sam takes the rabbits to make them with stew and misses having potatoes and Gollum asks taters whats taters precious and Sam says PO TA TOES boil em mash em stick em in a stew.

Ree, I agree with Anna Marie, keep posting, and showing those close ups of those hands…a sign of good work. I was raised on a farm, so I know those are marks of hard work, and efforts to make others happy.. You have the best of this world…don’t ever change.

I was looking for something to make for dinner tonight, and look – this is perfect! Even my 3-year-old (“I don’t like soup”) will enjoy it, I bet.

I woke up this morning — cold, drizzly and grey morning — wanting to make potato soup and this recipe is perfect. I have everything I need to make it on hand and won’t have to venture out into the miserable North Texas weather.

Please put the printable at the top. Your pictures, as lovely as they are, do not help me when I am making your recipes. When it’s time to make dinner — need the streamlined info

Wow that looks so good and we love potatoe soup!!! but if you want to play around my mom use to make it some good potatoe soup as well and after she passed i was trying to make it for her granddaugthers as all of them loved it ……. cream cheese is really good in it as well just cut it in chunks and let it melt in the soup its good ……just wanted to pass along. Happy new year from Kentucky!!!

I have never thought of putting cream cheese in potato soup, but I can see how that would add some tangy creaminess to the soup. I may have to try that!! Thanks for the great idea!

This looks very good, buy my mom’s potato soup with dumplings was THE perfect potato soup. She died in 1965 and didn’t leave a recipe (at least not that I could find). It took me nearly 20 years to find a recipe that was like hers. I found it in the same source as the person who posted the recipe I’ve linked to and still have the original in my recipe binder. The only thing I do differently is to add heavy cream or half-and-half or whole milk instead of sour cream. I don’t like the “tang” of sour cream in this soup.

Sometimes when I’m really craving potato soup and want it quickly, I make Mark Bittman’s 3-2-1 creamy vegetable soup: Bring 3 cups of stock to a boil and add 2 cups of chopped potatoes (I usually add half an onion to this). Cook until potatoes are tender. I then blend the stock/potatoes and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the dumplings and cook for 10 minutes. Then add 1 cup of milk. Garnish with chopped parsley. Delicious!

I add extra potatoes then mash half to thicken the soup instead of using flour.

Sometimes I add browned hamburger for that extra flavor.

Also, add garlic.

While at the grocery store this past weekend my husband suggested I make potato soup. I told him I needed to find a good recipe and I would make it……and low and behold look what popped up in my inbox this morning! Great timing – can’t wait to try it.

When I was little, my dad used to make me potato soup (from a can). I lost him way too young, but potato soup ALWAYS makes me think of him. This recipe sounds luscious, and I’m going to make some and curl up with some wonderful memories to share with my son, who never had a grandfather.

I LOVE potato soup! Use sour cream in mine usually, and have never tried the blender trick, but I’ll have to next time!!! For knife-challenged people, or those wanting 5 minute prep, use a bag of frozen, chopped carrots, celery, and onion and a bag of southern-style (diced) potatoes o-brien (adds more onion as well as pretty red and green bell pepper). Get the bacon cooked, open the bags and toss in, then continue as planned–easy peasy! =0)

This is very close to the potato soup I’ve been making for years except I don’t use carrots or celery. Just recently somebody told me to cut up an 8 oz block of cream cheese into the soup and stir often until it all melts before serving. Lord have mercy! It’s out of this world!

I omitted the bacon, added about half a cup of wine and also some minced garlic. And apparently too much carrot because mine is a pretty creamsicle color. I wouldn’t mind eating this every morning

This looks so good – I love potato soup but it’s tricky sometimes to make a really good one. This will be on the menu this week. Thanks and Happy New Year!

My husband asked if they sold nail polish remover in a grocery store, I said yes, lol guess thats a hint Ree, Love potato soup I make Bread bowl to serve it in. Frozen bread dough thaw cut in half and sape into a bowl let rise then bake, hollow out the middle and serve the yummy soup in it

Did you ever try rivlets in your soup. take egg and flour and mix until thick consistency. add some salt and pepper. crunble into soup while cooking. mmmm so good. my mother owned a restuarant and this is how she made potato soup. everyone loved it.

I love making soups in the winter, I like pieces of potatoes in my Potato soup and so many variations, I have added chopped up bratwurst and a little swiss cheese that one is real good. Deb

This does look good, although with just me and my daughter, potato soup has to go quickly. I’ve never frozen it because of the spud’s bad reputation for freezing. A bag of organic potatoes has to be used quickly, also, even though I have one of those potato/onion bins (no basement, though). Organic and/or without nitrates is really expensive, so I’ve found a wonderful way to get a smoky flavor (although it may not replace bacon) is to use a generous amount of my adored SMOKED paprika! Omg, anything with eggs, chicken, dairy, or potatoes, this stuff is wonderful. Tasha Tudor has a delicious, substantial potato soup recipe if you’re short of stock or veggies — just potatoes, onions, flour, water, and milk (and of course, smoked paprika!).

Cut the recipe in half or down to a third. I do that with nearly all of Ree’s recipes. They just make way too much for me and I have very little freezer space (apartment dweller).

Imperfect hands and nails are evidence of a life well lived. I love your chipped polish, it makes me feel normal. With Regards for the New Year, cmolder

‘Tater soup makes you beautiful. Or handsome. You get to pick.

Today is my birthday and I am baking salmon that my husband caught in Alaska in Sept. I was wondering what to add to my birthday dinner and this sounds perfect. Also going to bake Iny’s Prune Cake. I have made it many times and it will be a wonderful end to my feast!

A big batch of brand new Pioneer Woman episodes is about to begin on Food Network! Saturday at 10 Eastern/9 Central, I'll be cooking up individual portions of delicious food for Ladd's grandmother, Edna Mae, to stock her freezer. All she has to do is heat it up!

The quickest, easiest caramel sauce you'll ever make! Serve it over ice cream, apple pie, or cheesecake...or just drink it with a straw!

Add a Pinch