Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup

It has been so long since I posted anything to this blog. The last time I looked I was trying to clean things up a little bit and make for a more enjoyable read.  I didn't get too far.  My friend, the blog wiz over at Raisin Toast helped me a bit, and then I sorta kinda gave up, temporarily.  But today, with all this cold and downright frigid weather going around, I thought of soup, comforting, warm, delicious Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup.  If you own my book, the recipe is there. Today, however, I did make some changes. So if you do decide to make this, and I hope you will, print out my recipe here today and compare it to what the book says. I think it's an improvement.





POTATO AND CHEDDAR CHEESE SOUP

Heaping 4 cups of sliced, peeled potatoes (by the picture it does end up being more like 6 cups) I used 5 big potatoes
2 cups of water
1 cup of chicken broth
2 tsp. salt
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 Tbs. oil
3 cups of milk
1 cup of chicken broth
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley
1 pkg. Canadian bacon, chopped, there's usually 5 or 6 slices in a pkg., use the whole thing
2 Tbs. butter
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Chopped green onions and extra cheddar for garnish

Cook the sliced potatoes in the two cups of salted water and one cup of the chicken broth until soft, about 20 minutes.  While the potatoes are cooking, saute the onion and garlic in the oil until soft and beginning to brown. When the potatoes are soft,  remove half of the sliced potatoes with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Place the other half of the potatoes, all of the cooking liquid, the sauteed onion and garlic into your food processor or blender. You might have to do this in two batches. Blend until smooth and looking a lot like mashed potatoes.  Return all of this to the pot with the reserved potato slices and add the 3 cups of milk and the other 1 cup of chicken broth, along with the chopped parsley.  Add pepper and salt to taste. Give it a good stir, reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally for another 15 to 20 minutes. Do not boil.

In the meantime, melt the 2 Tbs. of butter and add the chopped Canadian bacon. Fry over medium high heat until the bacon is nicely browned and getting a crisp, blackened look on the edges.

Stir the shredded cheese into the soup, stirring until melted. Add the bacon and all the butter from the pan. Cook and stir until everything is heated through, but do not boil.

To serve, ladle the hot soup into a bowl and garnish with chopped green onion and extra cheddar.

You will not believe how delicious this soup is. I promise you it will hit the spot on these cold days. This soup gets its great flavor from those sauteed onions and all that flavor from the lean Canadian bacon. And no thickener was used, as it gets its rich thickness from the mashed potatoes!  Leave a comment for me and let me know how you liked it.  Baby it's cold outside. Stay warm everyone!!!