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 favorite 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 favorite 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 favorite 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 flavor 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 appetizer should be. Of course some bacon bits and spring onions are added as well as a little dollop of sour cream.
Both the soup and the croutons are delicious in their own right, but put together? Well, you have a little bit of heavenly baked potato bliss! This is honestly the best baked potato soup ever made.
If you like baked potatoes, and especially loaded baked potatoes, you best prepare yourself to fall in love with this easy and delicious soup. I guarantee!
Baked Potato Soup
Yield: 4Author: Marie Raynerprep time: 10 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 35 MinOne 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
- 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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