It’s the ideal thing to warm yourself up with on a chilly day. You can’t beat a bowl of this delicious soup, which is also extremely easy to recreate yourself.
Even if you haven’t made soup before, you will be able to follow this recipe. It is broken down into straightforward steps and uses common ingredients that are widely available.
Keep reading to learn how to make this delicious baked potato soup (Also check out Sausage Potato Soup).
Quick Answer
Just as the title suggests, this recipe helps you to make a soup using baked potato. Other ingredients such as cheddar cheese, garlic, and onions are used for additional flavor. While cream and chicken broth help to thicken the soup up. Overall, this recipe takes 15 minutes of hands-on time and 30 minutes of cooking time.
Why Should You Give This Recipe A Go?
This baked potato soup oozes comfort food. It is the kind of dish you turn to in the winter when you want something to warm you from the inside out.
With a bit of assistance from milk, chicken broth, and heavy cream to thicken it up. As well as some garlic, onions, and cheddar cheese for tons of flavor. This is essentially a baked potato, as the title suggests, but served as a soup.
This dish will become a household staple because it is quick to prepare and incredibly filling for the entire family.
Also, you may simply adapt this recipe to include other flavors you like, or you can keep it simple. Thus, there isn’t a reason why you shouldn’t give this baked potato soup recipe a go.
Ingredients Required For This Recipe
While it may look like a lot of ingredients are needed for this recipe, they are all very common. Thus, you won’t have any trouble locating these items, or you may already have them in your kitchen.
You will need to collect the following:
2 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes – The potatoes should be peeled and sliced into ½ inch chunks.
2 cups of chicken broth.
2 cups of whole milk.
1 cup of heavy cream.
½ pound of bacon – The bacon should be cooked and crumbled into small pieces. You should also reserve a tablespoon of the fat if you are using it.
8 ounces of grated cheese.
½ a yellow onion (finely chopped).
⅓ cup of all-purpose flour.
½ cup of chives (finely chopped).
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
2 cloves of garlic (minced).
1 teaspoon of salt.
½ teaspoon of black pepper.
Possible Ingredient Substitutions And Suggestions
To get the most flavor from your soup, we would advise that you use the ingredients suggested, however we know that isn’t always possible. Thus, we have provided you with some substitutions and other suggestions to help you to make this soup.
Potatoes – While in this recipe, Yukon gold potatoes are used, you can use russet potatoes if they are all you have on hand.
Bacon – If you are using bacon, we would recommend that you keep the grease from cooking the bacon and add it to your soup. This will provide your soup with another layer of flavor that you can enjoy. However, this is completely optional.
Cheese – Anti-caking chemicals found in pre-shredded cheese hinder the cheese from melting properly and can give the soup a gritty texture. As a result, we advise grating your own cheese straight from the block, as it makes a huge difference.
Dairy – If you’d rather, you can use low-fat milk. Although the heavy cream makes the soup extra creamy, you can skip it for a lighter consistency. Also, you may also use vegan or dairy free alternatives as well.
Vegetables – Potatoes are the star of this recipe, however, you could add more vegetables such as leeks, broccoli, Swiss chard or asparagus for a green hit.
Tools Needed To Make This Soup
Making your own homemade soup is a relatively simple task, and it doesn’t require many tools. In fact, this recipe for baked potato soup is one of the easiest recipes you will follow.
This is due to the fact that all you need is a potato masher, wooden spoon and a large stockpot.
No fancy equipment or blends required here. You could use a food processor if you wanted to, but it really isn’t needed.
Since, the potato masher allows you to create your desired texture and consistency easily. However, this step is completely up to you and will depend on the consistency that you wish to create at the end.
Baked Potato Soup Instructions
Once you have collected and measured out all your ingredients, you are ready to start making this mouth watering soup. It takes under an hour to complete, consisting of 15 minutes of hands-on time and 30 minutes cooking time.
Step 1: Create The Base Of The Soup
Melt the butter in either a Dutch oven or a large stockpot over medium heat. If you want to enhance flavor, you may add 1 tablespoon of the saved bacon fat.
After the butter has melted, add the onions and garlic. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the onions are tender.
Step 2: Add Your Potatoes
Over medium to low heat, add your diced potatoes to the large stockpot and simmer, stirring often. Cook the potatoes for around 10 minutes.
Step 3: Add The Liquids
Salt, pepper, and flour should be sprinkled over the vegetables. Cook for a further two minutes while tossing to help the flour to cook and be distributed evenly.
Pour in the milk and chicken broth, a bit at a time, stirring after each addition. This is to help blend the fluids with the flour and to thicken the soup.
Continue to simmer the potatoes on medium to low heat for a further 5 to 10 minutes, or until they are tender.
Step 4: Mash The Potatoes
To break up the potato chunks, use a potato masher. Depending on how chunky or fine you want your soup to be, it will be a result of how much you mash the potato chunks.
Cheddar cheese and heavy cream are then stirred in, and the soup is cooked over a low heat until it has thickened, and the cheese has melted.
Half of the bacon pieces should be added and mixed at this point. You can save the other half for the soup’s garnish
Step 5: Serve The Soup
Once fully combined, you add more cheese, chives, and bacon to the soup and serve.
What Can You Serve Alongside Baked Potato Soup?
While this soup is already a very filling meal itself, you could serve smaller portions and present it with a range of side dishes.
As with any soup, this dish is best served with a slice of bread. The type of bread you choose is completely up to you.
Although, we think sourdough bread is a great option if you are looking to try something a bit different. The sharpness from the sourdough works well with the sweetness and richness from the soup.
However, if you don’t want such a heavy meal, then you could serve this baked potato soup with a side salad instead. A simple side salad consisting of leafy greens works well.
Although, you could serve this soup with a range of grilled or cooked vegetables for a healthy side dish alternative.
Creating This Soup For Vegetarians
If you are following a veteran diet, you may make simple alterations, so you can still enjoy this soup. Instead of using chicken broth, you can use a vegetable broth, which will still have the same effect.
It will provide flavor to the soup and help to thicken the soup at the same time.
Furthermore, you can skip the bacon steps when following a vegetarian diet. Instead, you may need to add more salt and pepper to compensate for the flavor that the bacon would have provided.
You could also add more vegetables if you wished as well, and other seasonings like more herbs or spices.
Nutritional Facts
If you are keeping an eye on what you are eating, then you may be interested to know the nutritional facts about this soup. These figures are based on a per serving suggestion.
Calories: 537.
Protein: 17g.
Sodium: 921 mg.
Carbohydrates: 30 g.
Fat: 0.3 g.
Cholesterol: 104 mg.
You can easily add more protein to this soup by adding chopped up ham or even some shredded chicken to the soup.
Due to the milk and cream used in this recipe, it is quite a rich soup which has a lot of calories. Therefore, you can reduce this number by not using full fat milk or cream.
The reason we use unsalted butter in this dish is to keep the sodium content of this recipe down. You may use reduced sodium chicken broth to keep this figure down even more. By doing this, you can manage the amount of salt being added.
As a result, there are many ways you can modify this recipe to make it suit your dietary needs. Yet, overall, this is quite a healthy recipe, which focuses on vegetables.
Storing And Reheating
Baked potato soup is really simple to make, and you ought to think about making a large batch so that you can have this soup on hand.
Making In Advance – If you are meal planning and making this in advance, we would suggest you hold off adding the final toppings, as these don’t taste as great when reheated. It is always best to add the toppings fresh when you are going to eat the soup.
Refrigerator – If you do happen to have any leftovers, they can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for around 3 to 4 days. Then you can easily reheat it as mentioned below.
Freezing – You can freeze any leftover baked potato soup you have. Although, you should be aware that sometimes freezing any type of potato soup (Also check out Paula Deen Potato Soup) can result in a grainy texture once it has defrosted. Yet, this won’t affect the flavor at all.
Reheating – When it comes to reheating a baked potato soup, if it has been frozen, then you must allow it enough time to defrost properly overnight in the fridge.
Once ready, the soup can be heated on the stove on a low heat. You must stir the soup now and then.
It is possible that you might need to add more chicken broth to the soup, since the potatoes may release more scratch into the soup, creating a thinner consistency.
Also, the longer you keep the soup on the stove, then the thicker the soup will become. However, once it is warm all the way through, the soup is ready to be topped with bacon pieces (if using) and served.
Tips To Consider
To help you make this baked potato soup, we have gathered some of our top tips that we follow while making this recipe. Hopefully, these tips will help you when you follow our simple instructions.
Use Mild Cheddar
In this recipe, we ask that you use a cheddar cheese, as this type of cheese melts easily and provides plenty of flavor. In addition to this, we believe that it is best that you stick with a mild type of cheddar cheese and avoid any aged or extra sharp cheese.
Since these types of cheeses won’t melt properly and could add more saltiness to the soup and become overbearing.
Keep An Eye On The Pot
Continue to sauté the vegetables on a medium-low heat. Some of the potatoes, onion, and garlic will stick to the bottom of your pot if the heat is too high or if you don’t stir it enough.
Don’t worry if you notice any browning on the bottom of the saucepan. Once the liquids are added, these brown bits will be incorporated into the soup since the broth will deglaze the pan.
The soup will taste better with browned parts, but it won’t look as light and creamy.
The soup will become bitter if there are burned chunks on the pan’s bottom. We advise transferring the cooked veggies to another container, rinsing the pot, and then continue to add the milk, and chicken broth, if there are burned bits in the pan.
Add Some Heat
The recipe we have provided has very simple and clean flavors. However, you can modify this recipe to have a lot of different flavors if you wish.
This can include adding more herbs if you want to have a more fragrant baked potato soup. Otherwise, why not add some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper, to add a subtle yet noticeable heat to the soup.
Think About The Texture
Everyone enjoys a different constituency when it comes to soup. In this recipe, we suggest that you use a potato masher to help you to achieve the texture that you want.
Usually, with a potato masher, you will have a smooth texture, but there may be a few lumps. If you don’t like lumpy soup, then you could place the soup in a food processor or blender and blitz until completely smooth.
Conclusion
Baked potato soup is a truly delicious and comforting meal to prepare. You can easily customize this recipe so that it includes the flavors that you enjoy the most. Everyone will want to sample a bowl of this tasty soup.
We hope you have found this article helpful. We have provided you with straightforward instructions that anyone can follow to help you to recreate this soup for yourself. Thus, the next time you fancy a loaded baked potato, why not make it in soup form.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Make This Soup Vegan?
It is quite simple to make this soup vegan, as you would follow the same steps for making a vegetarian version of this soup. However, instead of using dairy milk, you would use soy milk.
In addition to that, you would also have to create your own cream by blending together soy milk and raw cashews.
As a result, it is fairly straightforward to make a couple of minor adjustments so that this soup is perfect for anyone on a vegan diet.
Can You Leave The Potato Skins On?
You can leave the skins on your potatoes if you wish, as this will save you time and offer you more flavor. Yet, you must make sure that you wash your potatoes properly, as you don’t want any pieces of dirt in your soup.
Furthermore, if you do leave the skins on then this will affect the final texture, as the potatoes may be a little more difficult to mash down. This isn’t a problem if you like slightly lumpy soup.
How Can You Add More Flavor To Your Soup?
If your baked potato soup isn’t tasting flavorsome, then you should consider adding more toppings. In addition to this, you could add a squeeze of lime, lemon, or sour cream to the soup.
By adding more acidity, this will enhance the flavors already in the soup. The last thing you should be doing is adding more salt and pepper, as this may not provide you with the flavor you truly desire.
A loaded baked potato is a really enjoyable meal, yet it tastes even better in soup form. Read on to discover how to make a delicious baked potato soup.
Hey! I’m Lana, the original Soup Chick! I decided to create this website as I am a massive soup fan. I will literally make soup for every occasion. Whether a friend is under the weather, has the flu, or I just want to try out something new in my slow cooker!
I hope that you can find some really interesting and different soup recipes to try out with my site. I know I’ve had a lot of fun curating and trying them all, and I hope that you do too!
