Loaded Baked Potato Soup

In our corner of the world, it rained over two inches yesterday.  Weather like this stirs something inside me and I start cranking out soups and stews like there's no tomorrow.  A warm soup on a soggy day makes for the best of dinners, and perfect leftovers for tomorrows lunch.

The following recipe is a family favorite that is on a regular rotation in our home.  It's easy, relatively quick- for soup, and makes enough to feed all four of us while leaving a good portion that can be dedicated to leftovers for the next day or two.



Loaded Baked Potato Soup (recipe comes from here)

6 medium sized Russet potatoes, scrubbed and washed
4 tbsp unsalted butter
6 green onions (if I don't have these on hand, I use yellow onions, diced)
5 cups of chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 heads of broccoli, chopped (I use one bag of frozen broccoli from Costco. It is one pound, I think.  I microwave it before putting into the soup.)
cooked bacon for topping (I used 4 strips and I cook them ahead of time.)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Once preheated, place potatoes in oven, and cook until done (1 hour?)  After the potatoes bake, take them out of the oven and place them on a plate and let them cool a bit before you start chopping them up.  Once cool enough to handle, slice open and scoop out the meat of the potato and chop it into bite sized pieces.

In a large heavy duty dutch oven, melt butter on medium heat.  Add green onions and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Cook for 4-5 minutes.

Add chicken broth and turn heat to high and bring it to a boil.  Then turn heat down to medium and allow to simmer for 5-6 minutes.

Add cream and sour cream.  Make sure to temper the cream!  You can find out how to do that here.  Add cheese and broccoli to soup.  At this point I take an immersion blender and I blend the heck out of the soup.  Not everyone will want to do that (if you are more partial to chunky style soups), but my kids do much better with soups if they are smoother.  The broccoli will become fine and blend throughout all of the soup and become less noticeable to a picky eater.  Keep soups simmering for another 20-30 minutes before serving.

Top with crumbled bacon.

Enjoy!


(BTW, this soup keeps in the fridge for a few days following, but does not freeze well)