Recipe - Creamy Garlic Potato Soup - Version #2

This post had been started well over 2 months ago and all that I wrote is very much in the past now. So much in the past that it originally mentioned about how I had gotten an unexpected call while out trying to do some grocery shopping from my 'new employer' which I was hired at on the *VERY* last day of 2011. That was about 3days into being told 'your hours might not start until March sometime when business hours are longer and we get busier'. Well needless to say I've put in more hours in the last couple of months then I think any one expected and I've been LOVING it!

The only real things I regret is that I haven't been here nearly as much as I want or need to be and that I don't/haven't been cooking properly or as often. I hope to change that a bit. There have been signs in the air of spring coming from hearing my wonderful birds chirping around 5am in the morning on the nice days to the other afternoon having a wonderful snooze next to my husband in the middle of the afternoon, waking to being comfortably warm and then a bit later hearing the wonderfully familiar sound of the local ice cream truck coming out of hibernation. Ok weird signs to some people... most look for the first sign of blooms on the trees or the familiar 'I saw my first robin today!' type thing but for me the above tell me that it's going to be spring soon and I can't WAIT! I miss my spring/summer fruits and veggies and well I'll admit it, the prices that come with them.

Today has taken my spring feeling away though. Although it's not bad temperature wise, it has been raining pretty heavy since I'd say about 5am. It sounded wonderful though, so wonderful that I slept until almost 10:30am which is very rare for me lately!

With the weather what it is today lets get onto the soup.... now this soup is another version of my Creamy Garlic Potato Soup Version #1. I don't have end results as I'm sure from the link above you can get the idea from it, there are 2 differences to this one though and that is it has no chunks of potatoes (although you can just as well do that too if you wanted it!) and it uses elephant garlic cloves instead of cheating with garlic puree.

Ingredients
 ♥ 4 to 6 large starchy potatoes, skinned and cut into small chunks

 ♥ 4 cups water (give or take a bit, this isn't rocket science)
 ♥ 2 chicken broth cubes

 ♥ 2 tbs olive oil
 ♥ 1 small onion, finely chopped
 ♥ 2 cloves elephant garlic or 5 cloves regular garlic, roughly chopped

 ♥ 1 cup light/low fat milk
 ♥ 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
 ♥ plenty of fresh cracked pepper

Directions

As said this is not rocket science, make sure your potatoes are cut into about 1/2inch pieces. Boil them in plain water until really soft. Strain and set aside.

In the pan that you just boiled the potatoes, take some paper towels to it and dry it a bit. Put it back on the burner and add about 2tbs olive oil. Add onion and garlic and saute until translucent and soft.

Add the milk and add water until you have your pot about 2/3rd full. I'm using a 3 quart/litre pot for this. Add the 2 chicken broth cubes and bring to a light boil... basically hot enough to melt the cubes. Add the reserved potatoes to the pot CAREFULLY! The potatoes will make the liquid splash. To prevent this, spoon the potatoes in and I do mean actually spoon them in. Take an over sized spoon like one you would serve with, grab a good spoonful of potatoes and dip the spoon with the potatoes into the mixture. I learned the hard way that trying to just dump the potatoes in at this stage just hurts as the mixture is very hot by now and the milk is even hotter.

Add potatoes but remember to leave a bit of room so that you can puree without over flowing your pot and enough room to add the cheddar cheese while still being able to stir. Once the potatoes have regained their heat which won't take too long, remove from heat and simply take a stick blender (or if you don't have one, use a normal blender and do the mixture half at a time) to it until there are no potato chunks left.

Return to a very low heat, add the cheddar cheese and pepper (add pepper to taste but I would suggest quite a bit since your trying to bring the pepper taste out over the garlic, potatoes and milk which all mellow out pepper taste quite a bit). Use a spoon to stir the cheese in until well melted.

Serve in mugs. This is a perfect grab a cup, sit on the couch with your favourite blanket and your book or TV and just sip away. And there you go. A nice rich, creamy, garlic potatoes soup that takes not a whole lot longer then it takes to boil the potatoes themselves while saving you from all the crap that pre-made soups have in them.

I'll get ending photos of this one when I make it again, which I don't think will be too far away if this weather keeps up!

Tip - My first photo shows a dish of sour cream. You can add a couple tbs at the end after melting the cheddar in for a bit richer texture/taste.

Recipe - Creamy Garlic Potato Soup - Version #1

You know the only thing about making all these new recipes and 'playing around' in my kitchen? *sigh* all the darn cleaning up afterwards! I can't wait until hubby and I are able to move and have a place we can trust to hook up a dishwasher too.

So yesterday started out a lot like today did... it feels cold (actually it is cold at only 47F (8C) at just past 11am) and raining. Yesterday it rained on and off until past noon but today, not sure. It wants to rain but then the sun comes out and then it rains some more so yea odd weather again. With the weather starting the way it did yesterday I set out to make soup this week. This one I take some pride in as I didn't follow a recipe at all, just a gut feeling of what would be good in it and went with it.

This is also a low cost/low budget type soup. Most soups are if you stay clear the say the seafood style ones like clam chowder or others that call for expensive cuts of meats. Soups are a wonderful way to get your daily dose of veggies too without breaking your budget or causing unwanted calories. Take into mind how you make them though. Such as this recipe, it calls for cream but if you choose to put in a tiny bit more money to get the light or low fat version of it since it doesn't need to be whipped, your waist line will thank you as well! Most 'cream' soups like this work VERY well with light creams and unless you go side by side with a full cream based one you won't notice the difference either. You'll also have the enjoyment of being able to sit back and enjoy your soup in almost any amount you want without the worry of it being 'bad' in any way, shape or form! And while I'm posting this, you can even make soup so hearty that you don't even need anything but it for your main meal. Adding beans and even lean ground meat to a soup will make a wonderful main dish all on it's own and still not being a burden on your budget.

Only tip I have for this recipe is cut your potatoes into small cubes/pieces about 1/2inch to 1inch pieces because it will reduce cooking time and it will also make the addition of reserved potatoes much nicer for eating.

Ingredients
 ♥ 4 to 6 large starchy potatoes, skinned and cut into small chunks

 ♥ 4 cups chicken broth
 ♥ 1 cup light/low fat cream (I again use my ever loved Alpro 5% cream)

 ♥ 2 TBS garlic puree or 3 to 4 garlic cloves very finally minced

 ♥ 3 TBS fresh parsley finely chopped or 2 TBS dried

Salt & Pepper for seasoning (optional) 

Directions
Make sure that you have your potatoes chopped correctly. This is most likely the only real make or break part of this dish. Cut them into 1/2inch to 1inch pieces.

Boil your potatoes by themselves, do not boil them in the broth you'll be using for the soup. You want the creamy texture the potatoes will give without all the added starch from the water they boil in.

Drain the potatoes, put about half to 2/3rd of them into the 4 cups chicken broth (making sure your pot is big enough to do some blending work and addition of the left over potatoes and cream), add the garlic puree (or cloves) and use a stick blender to puree the entire mixture together. If you don't have a stick blender, a normal blender will work just as well... just transfer the ingredients into the stand blender first instead of your cooking pot.

Once well mixed, put back on stove top and add 1 cup light/low fat cream and parsley. Heat through again to warm the cream. I suggest not putting it higher then a low heat. It takes a little more time but you won't have a chance of burning the potatoes/cream this way.

Taste and season to liking. We found it to be a wonderful filler to our meal yesterday while still being light and low in fat. The addition of the left over potato pieces left whole were very needed but if you just want a nice creamy potato soup, perhaps a bit thicker, add all of the potatoes at the blending period instead.