Potato Soup
My favorite meal is anything that is easy to make, tastes good, and feeds my family for a few days. Because of those reasons, especially the second one, potato soup is a top-of-the-list favorite. I make it slightly different each time I make it, but the general base of it is easy enough to be able to use whatever you have on hand to whip up a low effort, cozy meal!
I’ll list my homemade recipe first, but I’ll also list a few ways to make this lazy-girl friendly for those nights that you need something pronto!
Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons butter
3-4 carrots diced/shredded/sliced whichever you prefer
1 celery bunch finely chopped
1 yellow onion diced
4-6 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 packet ranch dressing mix
3 quarts chicken bone broth
5-8 potatoes diced
4 pieces of bacon, cut up
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 block of cream cheese
salt and pepper to taste
any toppings you prefer (diced jalapenos, bacon bits, croutons, cheddar cheese, green onions, etc)
Directions:
Heat stock pot over medium heat
Melt butter, add carrots, celery, and onion. Stir until fully cooked. Add garlic. Cook 2 minutes.
Add seasonings and broth, stir until fully incorporated. Add potatoes, bacon, and cheese. Increase heat and bring to boil. Allow to cook until potatoes are mostly cooked.
Remove 2 cups of broth and add to a mixing bowl. Add cream cheese block. Use immersion blender/mixer to fully mix cream cheese until completely smooth. Add creamy broth to the pot. Allow to continue simmering until ready to eat. Salt and pepper to taste, top, and serve!
Lazy Girl Changes
A few times a year, I buy carrots, celery, and onion in bulk to wash, dice, freeze, and store away because they’re staples in my soups and I use a lot of them! This tends to be the most labor-intensive part of the recipe so I love having some in the freezer for nights I want to just throw it all together! You can take it another step further and just purchase frozen organic veggies to use! I do this occasionally and I’m so grateful it’s an option.
Use store-bought minced garlic or garlic powder. Let’s be real - any garlic is way better than no garlic!
THE POTATOES!!! This is my most favorite hack that I’ve learned. A dear friend introduced me to the idea of buying FROZEN HASHBROWNS to use for soups!!! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself but GOLLY it has saved me some time chopping!!! My Walmart and Kroger don’t sell any organic options, but their store brands southern style hashbrowns are simply a bag of petitely diced white potatoes. I prefer diced in my potato soups, but if you prefer grated, you’re in luck because there are a few organic options!
One of the most important pieces of the recipe but probably the one I switch up the most. The BACON. I love some good crispy bacon chopped up and put in a soup to slightly soften. It adds some texture but is’t so crunchy that it feels like it doesn’t belong. When I really make this soup, I cook the bacon in my air fryer while sauteing the veggies so I can then chop it and add it later. BUT. Most times I don’t feel like doing all of that. I’ll add it raw to cook while the potatoes cook, I’ve used bags of real bacon bits from the store, I’ll use left-over ham bits from a previous ham dinner that I store in the freezer for soups, or I’ll even just buy a bag of diced ham. Same as the garlic - any bacon is better than no bacon!
You obviously don’t have to remove the broth to mix in the cream cheese! I haven’t had any luck getting it perfectly smoothed in the stock pot with the potatoes and everything else, but you may be able to! Or you could just mix it in and leave small cream cheese clumps (my husband loves it this way! He says it adds a fun texture and every bite is different). Or you could even just use some heavy cream!
