How to Make Potato Soup?

When looking for potato soup, you might be surprised by the options available. A traditional potato soup recipe is very simple, and potatoes should be tender but not mushy. Toppings are also a great way to add complementary flavors to your soup. Bacon pairs well with potatoes, and heavy cream or vegetable broth can be used instead of sour cream. If you want a more flavorful soup, you can add peas or corn. Toss in some bacon if you’re feeling adventurous.

You can always add extra seasonings to create a unique flavor profile, regardless of your favorite flavor. You could, for example, add a pinch of cajun, Italian, or taco flavor. You might also add some veggies to your soup, such as carrots and peas, to give it more texture. Soups benefit from potatoes with a low starch level and choose a waxy species with thin skins and high moisture content. It also maintains its shape when boiled, making it ideal for potato soup recipes.

Potato Soup

How to Make Potato Soup?

Potato soup is a thick, chunky soup composed primarily of potatoes and milk, with other vegetables, seasonings, and occasionally meat.

Ingredients

• Five pcs potatoes, peeled and diced (around 6 cups)
• 1 Carrot, diced
• 2 Stalks of celery, diced
• One medium onion, finely chopped
• Two cloves garlic
• 4 cups good chicken stock (homemade preferably)
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 1/2 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup cream
• 75 g butter
• Oil
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 8 pcs streaky bacon, chopped
• Spring onions, chopped
• Shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Heat a small amount of oil in a soup pot, add bacon, and cook until golden brown and crispy. Set aside the bacon and leave oil.
2. Add the butter, then sauté onions, garlic, celery, and carrots.
3. Add the flour, then mix to form a roux.
4. Gently add the chicken broth a cup until the sauce becomes even in consistency.
5. Add potatoes and bring to a boil, simmer in medium-low heat and cook for 20 minutes.
6. Add the milk, then continue to cook on low heat for 5 minutes or until soup is thick.
7. Add in the cream, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then turn the heat off.
8. Place in a serving bowl topped with the crispy bacon, spring onions, and cheddar cheese.

3 Tips for Making Potato Soup

Here are three tips for making potato soup:

1. Avoid sour cream or cream cheese. It might be tempting to add sour cream or softened cream cheese to help thicken the soup, but these dairy products only work in certain circumstances. To thicken a soup, it would be best to blend cream cheese or sour cream with an immersion blender or a full-size blender.
2. Cook the soup on the stovetop. Preparing potato soup in a stockpot on the stove allows you to adjust the cooking temperature, so the soup simmers or boils and cooks off excess liquid. By comparison, excess liquid can’t escape a slow cooker, which might result in a thinner consistency, more similar to that of vegetable soup. For this reason, recipes that call for using a slow cooker tend to rely on thickening agents.
3. Use instant potatoes. Unless you want a potato soup with chunks of potato, you can use instant potatoes instead of diced potatoes. Instant potatoes will absorb the chicken broth or other liquid as the soup cooks, resulting in a thick and creamy potato soup.

How do you Make Potato Soup Thicker?

Depending on the soup’s desired consistency, some thickening options will be more effective than others. Use one or more of these strategies to thicken practically any soup to any consistency while adding only a small amount of prep time to the overall time of your dish.

• Add cheese. For a baked potato soup flavor, add grated cheddar cheese near the end of the cooking process, which will thicken the thin soup as the cheese melts. Whisk the soup continuously to avoid it from looking separated or like it will curdle, and turn off the heat once the cheese melts.
• Begin with a roux. You can start a potato soup recipe with a roux to increase the soup’s chances of thickness. A roux consists of all-purpose flour and butter, plus aromatics such as garlic, onions, or celery, which you sauté for a few minutes to eliminate the raw flour taste. Making a roux before you add the soup’s liquid can help to thicken the soup once it comes to a boil.
• Finish with a slurry. A slurry can thicken a soup toward the end of the cooking process. Combine cornstarch and a little bit of water—or the chicken stock from the soup—in a small bowl. With the soup simmering over medium-low heat, whisk in the slurry. The soup should start to thicken almost immediately.
• Incorporate potatoes. Try adding instant potato flakes, mashed potatoes, or other diced potatoes to a potato soup to thicken it at any point in the cooking process. Carbohydrates like potato starch are natural thickening agents, so try to use a particularly starchy potato, like a russet potato or a Yukon Gold potato, and make sure to use raw potatoes rather than already cooked potatoes.
• Mix in bread. Adding stale bread or breadcrumbs to thicken soup is a common method that cooks use for Italian soups, but it can also work well for many other soups. The bread absorbs some liquid, then breaks down within the hot soup, thickening it.
• Stir in heavier dairy. Most creamy potato soup recipes call for a dairy product of some kind. If you plan to make a thicker version, try using thicker dairy from the outset. For example, if a recipe calls for whole milk, try adding heavy cream instead toward the end of the cooking process (set the burner no higher than medium heat). This results in an extra-creamy, luxuriously textured potato soup.
• Use a beurre manié. Similar to a roux, a beurre manié consists of a few tablespoons of flour and butter; however, you add a beurre manié at the end of the cooking process instead of at the start. After forming a smooth paste, add it to the soup and constantly whisk to prevent clumping. The soup will thicken as it returns to a simmer.
• Utilize an immersion blender. If you have an immersion blender, you can try pureéing some of the potato soup right in the pot. One advantage to this is that it requires no additional ingredients. Alternatively, you can transfer some of the soup to a food processor or high-powered blender to pureé it and then return the mixture to the soup pot.

Can I Freeze Potato Soup?

Potato soup, according to experts, does not freeze well. Soups with potatoes that have been frozen can turn dry because potatoes absorb moisture and have a tendency to become gritty when defrosted. Plus, dairy-based soups tend to split and lose their creamy texture. However, if you wish to freeze it, follow these instructions:

• To freeze potato soup, allow the cooked soup to cool first.
• Then, please place it in a freezer-safe container or a freezer bag.
• If making a large quantity of soup, consider freezing it in smaller packages so that it can be enjoyed all season long.
• Once the freezer bag is sealed, label and date it for reference, and then lay it flat to be stacked neatly in the freezer.

How to Keep Potato Soup for Longer?

It would be best to try utilizing a vacuum sealer to enjoy your potato soup for longer. This device suctions the air out of the bag or container, ensuring that no oxygen comes into contact with the food, conserving the flavor and extending its shelf life.

When it comes to soup, especially a thick one like potato soup, there are a few things to consider when utilizing the vacuum sealer. To begin, place the soup in the bag or container and freeze it for a couple of hours to solidify it. The vacuum sealer may then be brought in to remove the air and make the ideal seal.

How to Thaw Potato Soup?

To thaw potato soup, there are a few steps you have to follow:

• First, remove the package from the freezer and place it in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
• Alternatively, it can be thawed by placing the freezer bag under running water.
• Pour soup into a pot and stir to recombine ingredients, as some separation may occur.
• Heat gently, adding milk or cream and any herbs the recipe calls for.

Potato soup that has been previously frozen should not be frozen a second time. The thawed soup should be consumed within 2-3 days for best results.

Conclusion

Potato soup is a luxuriously creamy and delectable dish, especially when topped with bacon and garlic. Yummy! This delicious potato soup is made the old-fashioned way. Crispy, salty bacon, velvety cream, and sharp cheese are all used in this dish. One cup of this deliciously filling soup will warm you up on the coldest days! Use a waxy or low-starch potato. They have thin skins and high moisture content while low in starch. When boiling, they hold up nicely and preserve their shape.
This soup is made extra creamy; if you don’t want to use the flour, it will still be creamy; mix it until it reaches the appropriate consistency.