This is a guest post from my wife.
You can find many versions of cream-of-potato soup on the internet, ranging from those made with instant mashed potatoes flakes and dried onions, to gourmet creations that use Yukon Golds and heavy cream.
The recipe below is my favorite for those nights when a cold wind is blowing outside, I haven’t planned something specific for dinner, and I’m low on fresh produce. I almost always have the ingredients handy in my pantry. This soup calls for including the vitamin-filled skin of the potato, and it tastes great even without any of the optional add-ons. It reheats and freezes well. Kids I know will eat this soup as long as the onion is diced small.
I calculate that the basic recipe comes to about $1.15 per generous serving, if you bought a bulk bag of russets and are using canned broth. In our house, the stock is usually homemade with vegetable trimmings and a chicken carcass, so I count that as free! If I have celery on hand, I will dice a stalk or two along with the onion. The fresh garlic is the most extravagant ingredient — you could experiment with minced garlic in a jar or garlic powder to bring the cost down even more.
Serve along with cornbread, a salad, or some home-canned fruit and you’re set.
Hearty Baked Potato Soup
- 3 large russet potatoes, cleaned, skins pierced 3-4 times with a fork
- 1/4 cup butter or margarine
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cups chicken broth (or one 14-ounce can)
- 12 ounces evaporated milk (I use the fat-free kind)
- 2 tsp seasoned salt
- Optional toppings: shredded cheese, diced ham or crumbled bacon, chives or scallions, Tabasco sauce, croutons
Microwave the potatoes 8-9 minutes until baked through. Set aside to cool slightly. Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat and add onion. Cook 6-7 minutes until softened. Add minced garlic and cook 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add flour and stir several minutes to make a thickened roux. Gradually stir in evaporated milk and broth. Scoop the pulp from one potato, mash it slightly and add to soup. Cook soup on medium to bring to a boil. Add seasoning salt (to taste). Dice the remaining two potatoes and empty skin of the third potato. Add to soup and heat through. Serve alone or topped with anything that sounds good to you.
This recipe serves four hungry souls.
J.D.’s note: This soup is good, especially appropriate for curling up in front of the television on a cold winter night.
Sounds wonderful. Will try it this week. Like you, I love recipes that call for ingredients I always have on hand. Thanks for sharing! JD-Great to invite your wife to post for us … this frugal recipe post is a nice little break, too, after our deep discussions on education and jobs (I am still pondering what everyone offered up). Thanks!
Gloriosky! I’d forgotten about the joys of real homemade potato soup. It’s great winter fare. And in the summertime you can serve it chilled and call it vichysoisse.
My fridge still harbors half a bag of the Lifetime Supply of fingerling potatoes purchased from Costco for holiday feasts. I’m gunna turn those babies into potato soup TODAY! :-)
Thanks for the mighty fine idea.
Please make sure that you use organic potatoes — there’s been lots written recently about the fact that it is difficult (some say impossible) to remove pesticide residue from potatoes.
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=48
http://www.foodnews.org/release.php
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116891484181777282-DAQvGZvYk0fl98iJ14oVPWONusU_20080115.html
I love when I see a recipe that doesn’t require going out and buying groceries. We keep all these things in stock. Great stuff. Can’t wait to try it!
There was only one downside to the post…now I am hungry!
Thanks for the recipe, Saved!
Yay Kris! Great timing. Currently home sick and craving soup. I’ve had garlic soup (easy, homemade) and wild rice soup (canned, unsatisfying). Can make this in my current state and with things I have already. The best!
Is it still frugal if I need to buy a microwave to make this as well? I suppose I could bake potatoes in the oven, but that seems like it’ll take an awfully long time. :(
You can bake potatoes in a crock pot. yes, a crock pot. Depending on how many I put more than two for us so we can have some cold for other uses. I put on high….early in the morning.
I’ll have to see if I can find evaporated/condensed milk. I know I have a can of sweeten Condensed milk but not sure about unsweeten.
Would cream or high fat milk work?
Gonna try this next week! Thanks for the recipe.
Rob, I frequently substitute heavy (whipping) cream for evaporated milk since I usually have cream on hand. I would think it would work just fine in this recipe, which sounds fabulous.
@Rob Madrid – yes cream or milk will work just fine.
Much like @vh, I also have a Big Bag of potatoes from Costco. This recipe will allow me to make a small dent into the bag’s contents. I will also add some hot Italian sausage (also bought in bulk from Costco) to the recipe. Not low fat, but mmm-mmm-good.
Thank you Kris !!
Thanks for posting this. Can’t wait to try it!
Somehow, it had never occurred to me that fresh garlic would be more expensive than the jarred chopped kind – I mean, the jar is so much more expensive than a head or two!
Of course, now that I do the math on it, it makes perfect sense.
(And here I was, frustrated that DH wanted me to buy the jarred kind, TOO! I think I’ll just be buying the jars now, except for special occasions)
It is soooo frustrating being allergic to all the cheap food! No potatoes, soy, or canned tomatoes for me :(
YES! A good looking recipe.
The only downside is that potato is hardly healthy food. It might not have any fat, but it is among “bad” carbohydrates, along with white bread and pasta (except for the one from whole grain). It causes the blood sugar to spike, even more than a bit of ice cream. Makes you hungry sooner.
Mind you, I do love potatoes. It is a main staple of Russian food.
I love good potato soup! Now to quintuple that.
Kris, JD,
I made this tonight and really liked it, although I have so much left over. It is a lot for a single guy.
I added a few things to mine: crushed red pepper flakes for some spicy and some diced sun-dried tomatoes for some color.
Next time, I’ll pass on the SD tomatoes, they didn’t help much, but it really does need some color.
Thanks for sharing.
Potatoes are actually pretty good for you, but all things in moderation. They have a ton of vitamin C and potassium and even some iron…all good for those virus filled winter months! They’re also low in calories and fat, though if you use cream in this soup instead of evaporated milk, you’ll more than make up for that, haha.
Potatoes are definately a healthy food, unless of course you’ve fried them. Like singlemomindebt says, enjoy them in moderation and ignore the food nazis.
@Kat:
I primarily used the jarred minced garlic simply because when I buy garlic it tends to go bad before I can use it, so to me its more cost effective to just buy it in a jar. However, I still buy the littlest jar. I just throw a teaspoon in whenever I want garlic.
Although there are a few things I make where only the fresh garlic will do.
Speaking of stock — and saving money: The illustration image for this article is one of the weekly FREE photos from istockphoto.com. :-D
Garlic is also a really easy window sill thing to grow. If you have a decent window sill that gets some sun, you can always have fresh garlic, scallions, and those herbs that you use the most at the ready!
Great recipe! I can tell your wife is a good cook, too.
Dear Plonkee, YOU NEED A MICROWAVE FOR REHEATING LEFTOVERS AS WELL AS MAKING BAKED POTATOES IN A HURRY AND CHEAPLY. You do not need a NEW microwave. Got to a few yard, estate and house sales. You can pick up a nice used microwave for anywhere from $2.00 through perhaps $15.00. At the tag end of a sale I’ve been known to sell a perfectly functioning microwave for a dollar to make it go away. A microwave is a handy tool for keeping your food budget in line. It reheats leftovers quickly without drying out the food or heating the kitchen (great in warm weather!) The microwave steams vegetables, defrosts frozen items in a hurry, melts butter, superheats a grilled cheese sandwich after you take it from the pan, makes a cup of water hot in a jiffy for tea, instant coffee, cocoa, or dried soup. Normally the used microwave just needs a good scrub before using. ALWAYS TEST USED APPLIANCES BEFORE BUYING. TEST THE MICROWAVE WITH A TEACUP OF WATER WHICH SHOULD GET HOT IN A MINUTE OR SO. The stove’s oven is to be used to bake SEVERAL items at one time: do a roast, the vegetables, potatoes all at once. BAKE EXTRA POTATOES FOR TRENT’S SOUP WHEN YOU ARE RUNNING THE OVEN TO BAKE OTHER THINGS. You can do a pan of baked beans at the same time for another meal. Roast two chickens at once, one for dinner and one for later, and don’t forget to save all bones, skin and pan juice for the stockpot. You can even do a small stockpot full of chicken bones and trimmings in the oven while you are baking a stew or a roast. SAVE MONEY: RUN OVEN WHEN FULL, NOT FOR ONE ITEM!
Made it.
Loved it.
The KIDS all loved it. Man, when you can get that to happen, the stars and planets must all be aligned or something.
Thanks for sharing, keep ’em coming!
thx JD wife
@ kitty “The only downside is that potato is hardly healthy food. ”
-who cares, this is the type of curl up under a blanket eating soup! LOL
I read your blog via RSS feed on my Livejournal. Saturday night, when my fiance and I started wondering what we wanted for dinner, I remembered your post and suggested it to him. A short while later, he’d mentioned we might make some baked potato soup to his mom (whose house we were visiting) and she started looking through HER recipes and copied one off for us that was this same recipe (written a little differently, but using the same ingredients), after I’d already finished writing yours down.
Anyway, it’s what we had for dinner that night, and it was GOOD. I’ve never had baked potato soup before, so thank you for the introduction to something so easy.
If the potato is all that unhealthy, how is it that the Irish managed to subsist on them for so long?
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=101
It is easy to get caught up in any single element of nutrition and let it be dissuade us from eating what is actually healthy food.
I cannot completely avoid pesticides in my food and drink even though I garden organically. The reality is that there is a background level of pesticide residue that we simply can’t avoid. It’s in the air and water, on the soil and in the fabrics of the clothing we wear. That’s a sad state of affairs … but no reason to dump on potatoes.
As to what sort of starch is available from ‘taties’, I really don’t care because a healthy diet will include some of everything, with the possible exception of meat products.
That is not the only sort of carb you should consume in a day and many of the others, such as fructose, dextrose, maltose, sucrose and lactose are already sugars without being converted at all.
Some of the nastiest colds I have ever gotten came from women … but that is no reason to abandon my wife!
See if you can get Kris to give us a recipe every month. This is a nice break in the routine without deviating from the overall theme of the blog.
Kris, I made this last night for dinner and it was awesome!!! Very inexpensive and easy to make, which is good for me because I normally don’t cook :) The only problem I had was preventing the soup from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning!
I made this last night as well. We really liked it. I will be making it in greater bulk in the future. My only suggestion is to add more milk. The soup was pretty thick, but I guess that’s what makes it so hearty. Really stuck to the ribs.
Thanks for the recipe! I hope to see these more often.
“Potatoes are definately a healthy food”
This is definitely NOT true. This is something doctors used to believe in – “oh, it’s not potatoes, it’s just what you put on it”. Some websites still have this outdated information.
Sure potatoes don’t have any fat or cholesterol, but they have a very high glycemic index (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates.html). They contain starch and “the body converts this starch to blood sugar nearly as fast as it processes pure glucose”. So, while it might have some vitamins, you also get a lot of sugar.
Now, if you add some other things to your meal with low glycemic index, you might bring the glycemic index of a meal down. But don’t think of a potato as health food, this thinking is long outdated.
Sure, a lot of foods are high glycemic but that does not mean they need to be avoided by most people ( unless you have a specific medical condition or something). Just don’t eat them exclusively or overeat.
If a potato is the worst food you eat, you probably have other things to worry about.
BTW, I am going to make this later.
Also as far as microwaving/baking potatoes- I actually prefer to use the oven. I prefer the skin and pulp a certain way that only seems to happen with my oven method. I mean if I am eating actual baked potatoes. For the soup I will try the microwave.
I feel I should correct Kitty as potatoes are a healthy vegetable. Potatoes contain more potassium on average than a banana, are high in vitamin C and many varieties (remember there are many different kinds of potatoes – not just Idaho)in vitamin B, they also contain protein and fiber if you eat the skin. What makes a potato more likely to be unhealthy is what you put on it i.e. butter, sour cream, salt or if you deep fat fry them. Check out Barbara Kingsolver’s new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for more history on potatoes and growing what you eat.
When I make potato soup, I simply simmer the diced potatoes in the broth until tender.
Made this last night – AMAZING! I added a cup of cubed ham and a bag of Four CHeese Instant Idaho potatoes.
Thank you to your wife for the post – Please keep them coming :)
Greg C. – you are right. I agree that all people doesn’t need to avoid sugar. An occasional pastry is fine too. We don’t need to always eat health food either. I just have problems when people call potato a health food citing outdated information.
AnnD – the link I provided is to a publication of Harvard School of Public Health. Is your source more qualified than they are? As to the book – just because someone has written a book doesn’t make it true. Sure researchers used to believe that all carbs are good and all fat is bad, and yes potatoes have potassium and other vitamins, but it’s not the only food that does it. There are other sources of these minerals that don’t cause a big spike of sugar in your bloodstream.
Here is another link to Harvard School of Public Health – this one is to their health food pyramid (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html). A quote: “White Rice, White Bread, Potatoes, White Pasta, Soda, and Sweets (Use Sparingly): Why are these all-American staples at the top, rather than the bottom, of the Healthy Eating Pyramid? They can cause fast and furious increases in blood sugar that can lead to weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic disorders. ” Notice that potatoes are listed in the same category as sweets.
This was wonderful! We were going through a pretty down-and-out period and my husband was complaining about not having good food to eat because everything had to be cheap. I made this, with a few substitutions (onion salt, garlic powder, etc.)…but he and my daughter loved it! It was filling and comforting, and didn’t require any expensive ingredients…we had it all in the pantry.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!
Update: made this over the weekend and it was great!
I made this tonight and it was wonderful. Very filling and tasty. True winter comfort food! I’ll be making this again. Thanks :)
I made this last night and my wife said it was one of the best potato soups she’s had in a long time…Not only was it good, it was quick and EASY! Thanks for the recipe!
sounds delicious!
And you have just solved my dilemma as to what to make for dinner tonight!
I will just up the quantities slightly as I will be making it for 6
We made this last week, and it was amazingly good. We used milk instead of evaporated milk, but the soup was still nice and thick. We will definitely make this again!
Does anyone know if this recipe would work with vegetable broth substituted for the chicken broth? I am a vegetarian.
Big hit with my husband. I did add alittle cayenne pepper for some kick, and half a can of corn for some sweetness. I really like the corn in it. All together great. Oh yeah,also added ground pepper.
We are in the middle of a blizzard today; 14″ additional on the ground so far & only half way through & I’m making this soup! Perfect with salad to balance the meal, & a fruit for dessert, just like the suggestion.
We (okay, my lovely fiance) made this soup tonight- it was delish! Thanks for the recipe! Next time I think I’ll add some crispy bacon on top. :)
Thank you for a good old fashioned poato soup recipe without all the add ins.
I made this last night for an election night get together, and it was a HUGE hit with everyone, myself included. SO EASY, and WE LOVED IT!!!!!!!
Ive tried this twice and loved it! I put a link to your recipe on my blog =)
Looks yummy…I was searching for a substitute for the recipe this week at menus4moms.com, which calls for sour cream and cheddar–neither of which my husband likes. Can’t wait to try this! Thanks!
I used skim milk and it tasted great, too.
Chicken broth made a BIG difference!
Great receipe –
Thank You!
I made this tonight, after having eaten out lunch of Baked Potato Soup, and this tasted better. I was a little heavy handed on the garlic and only had mexican cheese to put on it, but boy was it good.
Winter comes, and good soups too!