Potato Soup.

I’m into simple recipes.  Perhaps you have noticed.  I don’t like complication.  I don’t like lots of tiny ingredients that I don’t regularly have on hand.  And I don’t like recipes that are time consuming.  Perhaps if I found cooking as stress-relieving as I find painting my nails, I would enjoy time-consuming recipes.  But I don’t.

I like potato soup.  And with my above mentioned opinions…this one ROCKS!

Potato Soup

8-9 medium/large potatoes, peeled and diced (I have used both Russett and Yukon Gold with success, and by medium/large, I mean the ones that size from the ten pound bag, not the bakers you buy individually.  I imagine you could use about 4 of those mosters.)

1 can chicken broth (Or 3-4 bullion cubes work just fine, too, in the absence of broth.)

A slice of onion, diced (Slice?  Just depends how much you like onion.)

A smidge of garlic (probably a clove for those of you who keep fresh garlic, it’s a half teaspoon for those of you who keep a jar of garlic in your fridge like I do.)

A quart of half-n-half

Salt and pepper to taste

Shredded cheddar and crackers for garnishing.

Peel and dice the potatoes.  Dice the onion slice.  In a big stock pot combine chicken broth, potatoes, onion and garlic.  Add water, just barely to cover the potatoes.  Cover with a lid.  Bring to a boil, turn down heat and continue to boil (still covered with a lid) until potatoes are soft (about 20 minutes).

Remove from heat.  DO NOT DRAIN (this is a very important step).  With a masher, or if you don’t have a masher, a big fork or spoon will suffice, lightly mash the mixture.  By “lightly”, I mean mash it so it gets potatoey instead of watery, but still leave some good diced potato pieces.  You can tell when you’re doing it, I promise.

Add half-n-half.  The whole quart.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  You can taste it now.  It’s already really yummy.  Sometimes after I have added the half-n-half, I decide it needs a bit more mashing.  You might, too.  Return to a very low heat – you don’t want it to boil again, you just want to heat it through.  Sometimes returning it to a low heat isn’t even necessary…but you have to judge how hot you like your soup.

Serve with shredded cheddar and crackers.  (And crescent rolls, if you like those.)

For a little variation, it’s quite good to add some cooked and diced bacon or ham.  I also really like adding scallions (that’s diced green onions, if you’re new to this).  Or if you have a family that won’t eat vegetables and you need to use guerilla tactics, I imagine you could add some veggies and get away with it, too.  But for real, I just like mine plain.  I’m a purist.  I think I’ve mentioned that before.  A few times.