I really hope you enjoy this baked potato soup recipe I am sharing with you today. Baked potato soup is a delicious bowl filled with all the comfort food goodness of a loaded baked potato. Rich and belly warming, this is sure to become a favourite!
What's not to like about a rich and creamy soup that is loaded with cheddar cheese, crisp bacon, sour cream and spring onions?? Nothing that's what!
Add to that mix a crispy potato skin crouton topping and you have a comforting bowl of heavenly bliss! There really is only one word to describe this amazing combination and that is DELICIOUS!
I am a born and bred potato lover. I was actually born on Prince Edward Island, or Spud Island as it is also lovingly known. They are famous for their potatoes! Its all that rich red soul, which makes it the perfect place to grown them.
The potato is quite simply my favourite vegetable. I enjoy it in any way, shape or form. Mashed, fried, boiled, you name it and I love it. I especially adore BAKED potatoes however.
With their crisp skins and fluffy interiors there is no end to how you can enjoy them. Split open and fluffed with a dollop of butter melting on top. Some sour cream perhaps.
A bit of chopped spring onion, BACON bits! Maybe a sprinkle of cheese! What's not to fall in love with there!
The original recipe for this fabulous soup comes from a cookbook I have entitled, Seasons in Thyme. It is a Junior League cookbook put together by the Junior League of Birmingham, Michigan. I love LOVE Junior League cookbooks.
They are the greatest recipe books, filled with tried and trues and favourite recipes presented by various Junior League groups. The recipes in them are just the best. I used to have quite a few of them. This particular one was the very first one I ever received.
It was a Christmas gift from my ex boss at Brenchly Manor. She gave it to me the first Christmas I worked there. Its paged were filled with lots of delicious recipes which were not just dinner party fare, but also practical for every day daily use.
Not a lot of photographs, but the quality of the recipes inside more than make up for their lack. I had to leave my copy behind in the UK when I moved back to Canada, but I have slowly been replacing some of my books, or at least the ones I always enjoyed and used the most. This was one of the ones I have chosen to replace.
This deliciously rich soup plays on all the flavours of your favourite jacket potato with the exception of the crisp skin. Adding a potato skin crouton topping fixes that however. It was my own idea to add the croutons. I love soup with a tasty crouton floating on top.
The soup itself is nice and creamy. You will need to bake your potatoes ahead of time. You can very easily do this the day before, or earlier in the day. You will need two large ones.
I favour russets. Just preheat your oven to high (425*F/225*C/gas mark 7) and wash and prick your potatoes. Place them into the oven right on the oven racks and bake for about an hour until they yield when lightly pressed. Timings do depend on the size of your potatoes. If they are really large they will take longer to cook.
One reason I really love this recipe is that it doesn't use mashed potatoes like many others, mascarading them as baked potatoes. This recipe actually used baked potatoes. You end up with lovely chunks of baked potato in the soup, which I love.
To be honest, and I always try to be, a baked potato and mashed potato don't even taste the same! Baking the potatoes imparts quite a different flavour to them than simply boiling and mashing them does. To me, if you are going to make a baked potato soup, you best use baked potatoes to make it!
You know it makes sense!
Make sure you save the skins from the potatoes to make the potato skin croutons. In order to do that, once they were cooked and then cooled enough for me to handle, I cut them into quarters and trimmed the skins away from the flesh, leaving about a 1/4 inch layer of potato to help hold the skins together.
The remainder of the potato was cubed to use in the soup. The body of the soup is a basic thin cream sauce. Made from using butter and flour and milk. The potatoes and some spring onions/scallions are simmered in this mixture to impart their flavours into it.
You then add some crisp pieces of smoky bacon. What would a baked potato be without bacon? I adore bacon bits on my baked potatoes.
I also like cheese on my baked potatoes. I have used a strong cheddar here, but you can use whatever strength of cheddar you wish to use. I use the white cheddar in the soup itself and a dyed cheddar on the croutons for a better visual effect.
Once the cheese has melted into the soup, some sour cream and seasoning is added, the soup is heated through and it is ready to serve.
And it is delicious just like that, let me tell you. But add that potato skin crouton on top and it just gets immeasurably better!
Those croutons were a real inspiration. Crisp and cheesy, just like a potato skin appetiser should be. Of course some bacon bits and spring onions are added as well as a little dollop of sour cream.
Baked Potato Soup
Yield: 4
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 35 Min
One word. Delicious. What more can I say?
Ingredients
For the Soup:
- 1/3 cup (80g) butter
- 1/3 cup (45g) flour
- 3 1/2 cups (825ml) milk
- 2 large baking potatoes, baked, cooled, peeled and cubed (2 cups) (save the peels to make croutons)
- 2 spring onions, sliced
- 6 slices streaky bacon, crisp cooked and crumbled
- 3/4 cup (85g) grated cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup (60g) sour cream
- salt and black pepper to taste
Potato Skin croutons: (optional)
- the potato skins from your baked potatoes, cut into quarters lengthwise
- low fat cooking spray
- garlic seasoning salt to sprinkle
- bacon bits
- a bit of cheese to sprinkle
- some finely chopped spring onions to sprinkle
- sour cream to dot
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Stir in the flour and whisk until smooth.
- Cook without colouring for about a minute or so.
- Slowly whisk in the milk, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and bubbles.
- Add the potatoes and onions. Bring to the boil, stirring, but then reduce to a slow simmer and simmer for 10 minutes over very low heat.
- Stir in the bacon. Gradually whisk in the cheese, allowing each addition to melt before adding more.
- Stir in the sour cream and season to taste with salt and black pepper.
- Serve immediately, ladled into heated bowls.
- The potato skin croutons can be made ahead. Preheat the oven to 425*F/220*C/gas mark 7.
- Cut the potato skins into long wedges. Sprintz with some low fat cooking spray.
- Place onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle with some seasoning salt.
- Pop into the heated oven and bake for 10 minutes until crispy and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the cheese and bacon bits. Return to the oven to melt the cheese.
- Spoon a dab of sour cream on top and sprinkle with the spring onions. Float on top of the hot soup.
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I have only ever had Baked Potato Soup 🥔 once. We were on a bus trip with our antique collector's club on a cold, rainy spring day. It bucketed down most of the day. We had stopped for lunch at a lovely country restaurant where we were to eat lunch in a tent like the ones used for weddings. The only thing I remember from the buffet lunch was the pipping hot Baked Potato soup. It was so delicious and warmed both body and soul. I will be making this soup for sure. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Love and hugs, Elaine ☘️
ReplyDeleteThis is really a delicious soup Elaine! I can well expect a hot bowl of soup was very welcoming on a cold rainy day! Brrr. I got cold just reading that!! Happy St Patrick's Day and Birthday! Love you! xoxo
DeleteI love potato soup. This recipe is quite different from my moms, but still delicious, I can tell. I love those Junior League Cookbooks as well. I have pared down my collection in the last few years. Much love - Raquel XO
ReplyDeleteI bet your mom's was really nice Raquel! There are many versions of potato soup and all are delicious to this potato loving carboholic! xoxo
DeleteThis sounds fabulous. Rick would like it too -- Rick would like it too. He's baked-potato crazy!
ReplyDeleteWe did a Junior League cookbook back when I was in the organization in the 70s. The reasons the recipes work are because of how they (or at least our group) pull together the book. First, everyone submitted recipes and a committee picked a LARGE number (more than in the book) in the various categories. Then everyone had to participate by making and serving the recipes and having those to whom they were served rate them. The cook had to rate them too, on the completeness of the instructions and you weren't allowed to change them (but you could add notes, like "I would add more cinnamon" or "I would adjust baking time.") The number of people and response cards was large, so every recipe was tested by multiple cooks and rated by many people before it made it into the book. I don't know if all of them worked that way but with ours you can pretty much count on the recipes being good.
Thanks Jeanie! I hope you will try it. I can well imagine that there is quite a process to go through with having a recipe put into a Junior League book! Thanks so much for your explanation of the process! No wonder the recipes are all so good! xoxo
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