I’m so full of it…. Loaded one might say…
A few posts ago I made claims. I claimed to have given up the delicious consumption of bacon, remember? Totally didn’t happen. I stopped for exactly 7 days. 7 days – Big whoop. I went for my bacon fix the second I could. What’s worse? I’ve been shamelessly flaunting my bacon eating ways.
Way to commit, huh?
I obviously have a problem. Don’t think I’ll ever quit eating bacon.
EVER…
Not when there’s yummy potato bacon cheddar soup to contend with. Oh, man – I just love saying that! Potato Bacon Cheddar soup. WOW… I so love soup. I’m known to have soup day or night, season notwithstanding. I have soup in the summertime. Then I’m very, very hot. Totally flippin’ worth it, though.
Soup is so good.
So good that if a situation arose where I’d have to sip food through a straw, say I lost my teeth or something – I’d say screw it – Chewing is overrated, anyway. Bring it on! Think of the endless soup possibilities!! Just hook me up with one of those long, long curly swirly straws in different colors.
I’ll deal…
A couple of months back I was out and about with my cousin. So love her. She lives out loud – And doesn’t care who goes deaf in the process. I love her to death. We stopped to eat. Browsing through the appetizers, my radar zones in on potato bacon cheese soup. I ordered it – Because it had bacon (duh), plus 3 of the 4 major food groups.
What? It did – Look!
Meat: Bacon and chicken broth – Check!
Dairy: Cheese and heavy cream – Check!
Vegetables: Potatoes – Check, check, check!
My mind processed: Healthy combo meal. Oh, come on – You thought the same thing!
No?
*Sigh*…
It didn’t disappoint. That was some great soup – So great my cousin went back another time and ordered it. Without me! I’m still raw about that, cousin.
I have quite a few soup recipes in my arsenal – And this week I made potato bacon cheddar soup. I so love saying that! It’s like someone who has this cool ass name that you must say in its entirety. Think Bobby Flay, or Mark Twain, or Sandy Cheeks, or… Um… You get the idea, right?
I didn’t tell my cousin about the soup. Till now…
Take that – HA!!
HA!!!
There’s quite a bit of work involved: There’s dicing of onions and celery. You have to peel and dice potatoes, which you know I HATE doing. The peeling – I love to dice. I can dice all day, even onions which make me cry.
The kitchen gods blessed me with a bonus round – Found my potato peeler after only 5 minutes of frantic searching – Yay!!
There’s the boiling period. Pretty standard stuff. Watch the bubbles and try to identify a shape other than a circle. What? Am I the only one who does that?
Really?
Oh, Ok…
You get to cook bacon. Major PLUS! It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?
Gosh, I heart bacon…
You have to make a roux. A roux is mixture of fat and flour used to thicken soups, sauces and gravies – Fairly easy stuff. You get to dump bacon, almost a pound of cheese into your soup and wait for the melt. Sooo YUM! You get to stir, stir, and stir. If you have kids, this is a good time to make them work for their dinner. You can sit back and um, supervise.
Then puree away!
Wise words from me to you: Make this soup! It’s so velvety. Every component in this soup shines through, without overpowering the other. That’s sometimes tough to say with bacon. Not here, though…
Delicious…Delectable… Yum….
Do yourself a favor – Purchase an immersion hand blender. They’re easy to use, very easy to wash – And you get to work your arms out a bit. If you hate to exercise (me!), you can call that a workout.
BO-NUS!
Ok, I wasn’t going to tell you this – Was totally gonna keep this to myself. Thought if I did you wouldn’t make this soup. But what the hell – You’re bound to find out anyway. This soup is full of calories. Like, over 800 per bowl. I’m not kidding… Total fat kid day soup. Don’t let this deter you in any way, though. Just you know, skip lunch or something. Hey, let’s not forget that awesome workout you get when you puree this soup. You definitely need to reward yourself for that.
You’ve earned it…
Me…
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Potato Bacon Cheddar Soup
Source: Adapted from Food.Com
Servings: 6-8
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/3 cup chopped celery
- 6 Tablespoons butter
- 5 cups diced peeled potatoes (about 5 medium russet potatoes)
- 1 32 oz. low sodium organic chicken broth
- 12 ounces (about 4 cups) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 ounces (about 4 strips) cooked crumbled bacon
- 1 tablespoon bacon grease from your cooked bacon
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- Salt to taste
Directions:
Dice the onions and celery. In a large saucepan, sauté onion and celery in 4 tablespoons of butter until tender. Add diced potatoes and chicken broth to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or till potatoes are tender.
In a small skillet, cook your strips of bacon until crispy. Reserve one tablespoon of bacon grease, discarding the rest. Chop your bacon finely and set aside. In the same skillet (sorry, trying to wash the least amount of dishes) melt 2 tablespoons of butter; add the tablespoon of bacon grease and flour to make a roux. Cook roux over low heat until dark-ish yellow in color. Set aside.
Add water, cream and roux to the potato mixture stirring continuously until mixture thickens. Stir in the cheese, cooked bacon, parsley, pepper, paprika and salt to taste. Cook over low heat until the cheese is melted, stirring continuously. Remove from heat when cheese is melted. Puree the soup with an immersion blender. Ladle onto bowls. Garnish with crumbled bacon, if desired.
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