I know what you’re thinking, “this chick has an irrational obsession with soup”. Well, let me at least defend myself! When I feel like cooking I dislike wasting food. Since soup is such a great thing to freeze and bring for work lunches, I tend to gravitate towards it whenever the man can’t have dinner with me.
Potato and Bacon Soup
This is a delicious recipe that I customized from a ham and potato soup from allrecipes.com. I mean, how can a dish with bacon and potatoes go wrong? I’ll honk my horn and say that this is one of the BEST soups I’ve ever made!
Ingredients:
- 4-5 large potatoes, cut to spoon sized pieces
- 5 TBSP butter
- 5 TBSP flour
- 4 slices of bacon, diced
- 1 tsp garlic, crushed
- 2 cups milk (might need more)
- 2 cups reserved potato water (don’t add all right away)
- ½ cup fat-free cream (if not, no big deal)
- ¼ cup scallions, diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- Shredded cheese and scallions to garnish
Tips: Feel free to leave the potato skins on, to substitute low-fat butter or a butter/margarine mixture, and add celery.
Instructions:
- Boil the potatoes until they’re cook almost all the way through, strain, and make sure you save and set aside the 2 cups of the starchy potato water.
- At the same time, fry the bacon bits and garlic in a small pan and set aside.
- Make a roux with the butter and flour in a large pot. If you’re not sure what that is, here are the details: “How to Make Roux Video”.
- Slowly add the milk into the roux pot. Once there are no chunks of roux by mixing it slowly with a spatula, add the potatoes, bacon/garlic mixture, cream, salt, and pepper.
- Once you get a gauge on the thickness, start adding the starchy water until it’s a little thinner than you’re desired texture (it will thicken up a little). Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the scallions (reserving a few for a garnish) and season to your desired salt and pepper level.
- Garnish with scallions and shredded cheese!