Most of the time we eat pretty simple meals around our house, and yesterday was no exception. I had the ingredients on hand for potato soup which is one of my family’s favorites. I never plan on potato soup; it’s just one of those meals where I need to use something before it goes bad and potato soup is one of the easiest and fastest things to make. It does require a little preparation time since it requires cutting all of the vegetables, but it is well worth it end the end.
Potatoes are a staple at our house because they provide an inexpensive side dish, are easy to store, and can stretch a meal if you need a filler. We almost always have carrots, celery, and onions on hand which are the base of any good soup. I actually can’t stand the taste of celery, but will tolerate it in soup since it practically melts aways after I dice it into tiny pieces. Since the main star of the soup is potatoes, I dice all of the other vegetables up into small pieces as well. Our young son is not a fan of many of the meals we make, but I was able to get him to eat the soup last night after I removed most of the carrots from his bowl of soup; oh the joys of motherhood.
The soup is pretty basic, and starts out just like I would be making a spaghetti or ragu sauce. I toss all of the chopped celery, onions, and carrots into a stock pot with butter to sweat the vegetables before I add the liquid and the potatoes. After just a few minutes, it’s time to add the liquid and the potatoes. The liquid can be whatever you have on hand. My potato soup is never the same twice since I don’t do a lot of measuring, and don’t really follow a recipe. Yesterday I used chicken broth, water, and a can of evaporated milk for the liquid, but I’ve used heavy whipping cream or half and half, and even 2% milk in place of the evaporated milk.
After many attempts at trying to make my potato soup thicker, I actually discovered by accident that leaving the lid off of the pot while cooking reduces the soup and causes it to become slightly thicker after I’ve added the milk. I am not the best cook in the world, but I love when I figure out how to do something, quite by accident.
I have been wanting potato soup. My son and I are the only ones who will eat it in my house. My version is a lot plainer it sounds like. Boil diced potatoes drain, add in milk onion powder, salt pepper and butter. It’s good w cornbread especially jalapeno cornbread. Your sounds tastier! =D
I love potato soup. Yours sounds good too! I was going to say that you can’t mess potato soup up, but I remembered that I have messed up before. I was really happy when I was able to convince our four year old to eat it, it’s a major accomplishment me us.