Simple Cream of Potato Soup
In this installment of “Geoffrey cooks because the onions and celery are going bad and I’m getting no where with troubleshooting this WordPress plugin”, I make an extremely simple cream of potato soup. While most of my experience with cream of potato soup comes from a familiar, red-labeled can, I have it on good authority that it can actually be made in a kitchen from common ingredients with almost no risk of injury to the cooking-challenging like myself.
This is not a particularly complex version. In fact, it is probably one of the simpler ones (just a few couple notches above “where is the can-opener”), but I was pleased with the results and you can always experiment with some of the optional ingredients and top it off to suit various tastes/audiences.
The Basics:
- 3 Cups/cans chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 Medium chopped onion
- 2-3 Medium potatoes
- 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups of half-and-half
- 1/4 teaspoon white or black pepper
Optional:
- 1-2 diced carrots
- 2-3 diced stalks of celery
- Replace half-and-half with whole milk
Toppings:
- Crumbled bacon or Fake-o-Bits
- Sour cream
- Shredded cheese
- Chives
- Parsley
Dice all vegetables and combine in a medium to large pot with broth and dill weed. Bring this to a boil for several minutes, then reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Use an immersion blender to reduce to the consistancy you prefer.
Combine salt, pepper and flour together and mix thoroughly in a small bowl. Gently melt your butter or margarine in a small sauce pan. Add small portions of the dry ingredients and half-and-half or milk at a time, stirring constantly. Continue until all dry ingredients and half-and-half or milk are combined thoroughly and thickened.
Thoroughly stir this mixture into your blended vegetable pot. It should be good to go at this point, but you can continue to thicken/reduce if you like.
Makes 8-10 hearty bowls. Add any/all/more/none of the toppings above and allow guests to season to taste.
