Winter Is Here: Grandma's Potato Soup Recipe
Potato soup is for winter. I am not sure it would even taste good in the summer. When we make it, we make a enough to last for a week or so of lunches. If you want to try it out, you can find the recipe below. This version has a thick, creamy base with chunks of potatoes.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- Large stock pot, blender, measuring cups & spoons, sharp knife for dicing
- Package of bacon, cut into about 1 inch pieces
- 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
- About 4-5 cups of potatoes (so about 6 whole large potatoes, or a whole bunch of little ones washed and diced)
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups heavy cream or half and half
- 1-2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
- 1-2 teaspoons black pepper (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon Cajun spice mix or cayenne pepper
- 3-4 cups diced ham
Rinse your potatoes and remove the eyes. You can peel them if you want; I don’t. Cut them into small bite size pieces. Dice up your onion.
Add bacon pieces to a big soup kettle over medium heat; cook it until bacon crispy. Get the bacon out of the grease with a slotted spoon and put it aside. Leave the bacon grease in the pot.
Return the hot to medium-high heat and add the onion. Stir and cook for a couple minutes then add the diced potatoes. Cook for another 5-10 minutes and season with 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper, and a dash of Cajun spice if you like it. You can add more seasoning later.
Add the broth. Cook at a low boil until the potatoes start to get tender, usually another 10-15 minutes. Whisk together the flour and the milk, and add it to the soup. Reduce the temperature to low and let it cook another 10-15 minutes. Remove half the soup from the soup kettle and let it cool in the fridge to something less than blistering hot (so you can safely work with it). Maybe 20 minutes.
To get the perfect creamy potato soup texture, run the soup from the fridge through a blender until smooth, then mix it back into the soup on your stove. Bring it back up to heat and add seasonings to taste. Stir in your cream and diced ham. Serve hot and garnish it with the crispy bacon you set aside (if you have any left after snacking on it the whole time you were cooking).
Enjoy! Stay warm out there.