Out of all my favorite homemade soups, I suppose potato soup has to
be one of my favorites; especially my Mother’s potato soup. Mmmm. I’m
not just trying to rack up points with her, she really makes a mean
potato soup. And the best part is, it’s really simple. Maybe that’s the
trick to it.
Here’s the list of ingredients. Many can be changed around to suit your
taste. For example, Mom doesn’t put mushrooms in hers, but I think the
work real well. So get creative and have fun with it. Some ingredients
are specific because I tend to shoot from the hip when I cook and don’t
know how many potatoes or whatever it will take until I’m cooking.
Ingredients:
Several potatoes peeled and cut into bite size pieces
Mushrooms – 450g of fresh depending on preference (optional)
1 or 2 medium or 1 large onions
Garlic – 3 or 4 cloves peeled and minced
2 stalks of celery trimmed and chopped
Butter
Milk
Salt and Pepper
Flour (if needed)
Directions:
In a large soup pot on medium melt a stick of butter (1/4 pound) and
add the chopped onions, celery, mushrooms and the garlic. Add more
butter if needed. You can also add some salt and pepper to taste. Cook
until onions are transparent.
TIP: You can use canned mushrooms if you must, but fresh are better.
Add enough potatoes to at least fill the pot half way – ¾ of the way is
best, so you will need several pounds of taters. Let them heat up in the
vegetable butter mixture, moving them around often for exposure. Once
they are hot and getting soft, pull out about ¼ of the mixture and put
it in a blender to mix well into a mush. This will be our thickener.
Add that blended mixture back in with the rest of the ingredients and
add just enough milk to cover the potatoes. Add more salt and pepper if
desired. At this point, if the soup is ‘too soupy’, take a few
tablespoons of flour and mix them well with about a cup of cold milk
then add to the soup.
Turn the heat down to low and keep stirring the soup so it doesn’t stick
to the soup pot. Cook this for at least 30 minutes, but I like to cook
it for an hour or so.
After that, dish it up hot. This goes great with a crunchy French bread
and you should have plenty left over for extra meals. Thanks Mom <grin>
