Jeff and I have been talking about making soups and stews because they’re easy to make, easy to store, and easy to prepare on a day I don’t want to cook, so I was looking for a hearty soup to enjoy.
The Recipe
Baked Potato Soup from allrecipes.com. It’s a sizeable recipe so I made half of a batch.
As I scrolled through the instructions, my eyes landed on the nutritional facts. 49.3 GRAMS OF FAT! 1335 MG OF SODIUM?! Holy crap. I’m not worried about weight but I am worried about heart disease! I decided to use low-sodium versions of ingredients wherever possible.
Ingredient changes
– Low-sodium bacon
– Unsalted butter (instead of margarine)
– Skim milk
– Low-fat sour cream
Ease (or not) of prep
I might have made a mistake here. The recipe calls for baked potatoes so I actually rubbed the potatoes in olive oil, put them in tin foil, and baked them in the oven for an hour. When I looked at the recipe again, the instructions didn’t include this, nor was it factored into the time needed to prepare the dish. I think I did the right thing though because I imagine the potatoes would have been hard and uncooked if I hadn’t.
Other than that, this recipe was pretty straight forward. Making and chopping the baked potatoes was the most time-consuming part of prep but otherwise you just have to dump stuff in a pot, and that’s my kind of cooking.
Boyfriend Test: Pass
Jeff walked in the door from work just as I was finishing the soup, and I immediately stuffed a spoonful in his mouth. He has a full beard so sometimes it can be difficult to gage his reaction, but he couldn’t hide that smile from me. As he ate, he repeatedly said it was “really good” and “delicious.” He later said that he wished he hadn’t eaten so much because it’s quite heavy but otherwise, this dish gets a solid pass.
Overall…
I’ll make this again. It was really yummy and relatively simple. I put the leftover soup in a mason jar, which Jeff took to work for lunch. The next time I make it, I’ll store a portion to see how it survives the freezer.
What’s your favourite soup? I want to do one in the slow cooker soon so I’m open to recommendations!
The Curmudgeonly Cook 