Thursday Night: Baked Potato Soup

Baked Potato Soup

I wanted to make baked potato soup, but didn't exactly have all the ingredients. Do you think that stopped me?

I even snuck in a bunch of leftover veges that I had from the week before!

4-6 red potatoes (thin skin)
1/2 head of cabbage
1/4 very large red onion (half a medium or a whole small would work just as well)
some celery (I used the last 2-3 celery stalks of a bunch, but you could use just the tops - I often cut celery this way for ease of use)
4 cups water
1/2 cup un-chicken broth powder (I got mine in bulk at Henry's/Wild Oats)
Butter and/or oil

Coarsely chop all vegetables. You could also add carrots or scallions if you wanted. Chop more finely if you don't have a blender. Put 3 or so tablespoons of butter or oil in the bottom of a pot/saucepan. I used half butter, half grapeseed oil. Add the onions. Mine were coarsely chopped, since I hate cutting onions and I was planned to puree the soup in the end. Cook onions about 10 minutes, until soft.

Add the cabbage and potatoes and water and broth powder. You could use liquid broth instead, it's just more expensive. Cook for about 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are soft when stabbed with a fork. Then puree - I always used my magic wand blender. You can blend it right in the cooking pot (while it's hot!), and it's so easy to clean!

Cheese (I used hard parmesan)
Bac-un bits (I got mine in bulk at the food co-op)

Grate cheese on top of soup; I just used a little, but it would be good with a lot. Sprinkle with bac-un bits; this is the magic ingredient. I didn't add any salt because I used so much broth powder.

Marshall wanted me to write this recipe down, too. He probably doesn't realize how much cabbage was in this soup! I actually made it last week, but he brought it up again because I tried to eat the last of the leftovers for lunch , and he didn't want me to because he hadn't had any of the leftovers yet. That is a sign of a popular soup!

Serves: We each had one small bowl.
Total time: about 1 hour (30 miutes prep, plus cooking)
Leftovers: We had about 5-6 small bowls leftover.
I often freeze soup in small glassware with rubber lids - it makes an easy weekday lunch "to go." I usually do some in single serves, some in two-servings (those are for weeknight dinners).