I’ve never made potato soup before. I read a few recipes, and decided to make my own style. It wasn’t bad for the first time! I wanted to save it for later for myself, so I thought I’d share while I was at it.

I wanted something that would pair well with Reubens, and I think this hit the spot. I have been on a corned beef kick lately.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter
• ½ sweet onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• Handful of shredded carrots
• lil’ bag of “bacon pieces.”
• Cup of flour
• ½ of a 5 lb. bag of gold potatoes
• Box chicken broth
• Box vegetable broth
• 2 cups milk
• ½-ish cup heavy cream
• Dollop sour cream
• Shredded Cheese: sharp cheddar, Gouda, extra sharp white cheddar – maybe a cup combined.
• Pepper, salt, white pepper, paprika, season-all, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley. Use your own best judgement.

Method:

1. I sort-of peeled about half a bag of gold potatoes, & diced them up… cubes smaller than an inch, maybe ½” to ¾”.
2. Chopped up half of a sweet onion, and a hanful of shredded carrots. Maybe 2 handsful. Hadfuls?
3. Minced 4 cloves of garlic. Probably could have used more.
4. Put the soup pot on the stove… melted butter over medium, sautéed the onions & carrots for a bit, before adding the garlic… then the bacon pieces and the 2nd chopped up stick o’ butter. I hit it with some spices.
5. Mixed some spices in the flour, and whisked that into the overly buttered sautéed bits, then let it brown a lil’ bit.
6. Added the boxes of stock, milk, cream, & sour cream.
7. Plopped in the potatoes.
8. Brought it to a boil, still over medium. Stirred it a lot. A lot.
9. Let it boil for like 15 minutes… then added the shredded cheese. I eyeballed it so my “measurement” could be way off.
10. Stirred it again. A lot.
11. Used an immersion blender to blend about half the potatoes to thicken the soup.
12. Let it sit while I made Reubens.
13. Served with a smaller dollop of sour cream, bacon bits, & mix of shredded cheese on top.

Notes:

• I bought a pack of instant mashed potatoes in case I needed to cheat and thicken up the soup. I didn’t need to, but I bet that would wok if I wanted more potato chunks & to skip the blending?
• Ham or pork bullion/broth would probably reinforce the bacon flavor?
• I wonder if roasting the potoates before adding to the soup would add some more flavor?
• Parmesan cheese may have been good too?
• Could have upped the spice with some cayenne or more white pepper, or maybe put tobaso/red hot in the serving bowl?
• Could have used real bacon, fried it in the bottom 1st & used that grease to mix with the flour… but I didn’t feel like opening a pack of back only to use 4 or so strips.
• Chives would be good if that’s your thing.

Any suggestions? Like I said, I wanted to pair it with Reubens. I have been on a corned beef kick. You don’t need a recipe for that, do you? Let me know if you do.

Like I said, I have been on a corned beef kick lately…

These are interesting reads on Corned Beef:

• https://utahstories.com/2018/03/corned-beef-and-pastrami-where-do-they-come-from/
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-corned-beef-really-irish-2839144/

Enjoy a Celtic playlist or two, and tell me what good stuff I’m missing…

• Amazon Music – Celtic Shenanigans 🍀
• Spotify – Celtic Shenanigans 🍀

🍻
ℌ𝔢𝔯𝔢’𝔰 𝔱𝔬 𝔞 𝔩𝔬𝔫𝔤 𝔩𝔦𝔣𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔪𝔢𝔯𝔯𝔶 𝔬𝔫𝔢.
𝔄 𝔮𝔲𝔦𝔠𝔨 𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔫 𝔢𝔞𝔰𝔶 𝔬𝔫𝔢.
𝔄 𝔭𝔯𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔶 𝔤𝔦𝔯𝔩, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔫 𝔥𝔬𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔱 𝔬𝔫𝔢.
𝔄 𝔠𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔟𝔢𝔢𝔯, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔫𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔬𝔫𝔢!