As a special request from Mark, I made baked potato soup tonight.
There are many different versions of this soup–which gets most of its flavour from pre-baking the potatoes–but I really enjoy this one. It’s super simple, easy, and deliciously vegan.
What it does want, however, is a good vegetable stock as a base. I usually save up the ends of veggies I’ve chopped up, onion skins, and such like in a bag in my freezer. When the bag gets full [or I need stock], I toss it in either the crock pot, if I’m not in a hurry, or a stock pot on the stove. Then it either gets used or frozen for the future.
One thing I have noticed when making vegetable stock [although this was not true of meat or bone based stocks] is that there really IS such a thing as simmering it too long. At this magic point, the house smells amazing, and really, that’s the time to stop. Because I’ve left it longer, and the stock begins to lose something, a lot of the subtle flavours break down, and while it’s usable, it’s nowhere near good enough.
I do not know exactly what causes it or how to guess in advance when that right time will be. Anyone out there have any experiences or thoughts on the matter? I’d really love to know more.
Baked Potato Soup
Ingredients:
Green onions or Chives, a few, sliced
Red onions, 1 medium or 2 small, sliced
Potatoes, baking, about 8-10
Vegetable stock, ~2-3 cups
thyme
garlic, roasted, granulated, or pressed, to taste
olive oil, ~ 3 Tbsp
pepper, hot, to taste
pepper, black, to taste
Wash potatoes, stick them with a fork a couple times, bake them for 1 to 1.5 hours on 400 degrees F. They are done when they are easily pierced with a fork and seem soft enough. Set aside to cool for handling.
Take all the sliced onions [and fresh, pressed garlic if using it] and saute for about 5-7 minutes on medium heat in a sauce pan with about 3 Tbsp of olive oil.
For a darker taste, use roasted garlic [quite easy to do: stick garlic in the oven with the potatoes, after drizzling with olive oil, and remember to remove them after about 20-25 minutes depending on how dark you like them. Some people roast them with the skins on by just slicing the bulb in half, and they pull away from the skins during the roasting process, making it easy to slide them out. Others prefer to shuck the skins off before tossing them in the oil and roasting]. For a sharper & very garlicky taste, do not add the fresh garlic to the onions, but press it into the soup only 3-5 minutes before serving.
While that’s going on, bring stock to a boil in a large stock or soup pot.
Once potatoes are cool enough to touch comfortably, roughly chop them up and add them to the stock, turning the heat down and simmering it. Add the onions and garlic to the soup, stirring gently. Add thyme, hot pepper, and black pepper to taste.
Allow to simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point, taste occasionally also to see when the spices have matured enough for your preferences. Sometimes Mark will taste it and desire a few more tablespoons of olive oil.
Now, Mark tells me he has had good experiences making this soup with just the potato masher, but I happen to think you get a creamier soup using the immersion blender. I am not one for completely smooth soups; I prefer to have different textures, and things to bite into floating in my soup.
Thus I take the immersion blender and pulse it a few times around the pot, blending perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of the potatoes and some of the onions into the stock, while keeping large amounts of variously sized chunks of potato and onion intact. If you prefer your soups smoother, just blend more. Another way to do this, if you do not own an immersion blender, is to use a potato masher [again, mash more or less depending on how chunky you like soups], but do be careful as the soup is very hot. You can also take it out of the pot and use a blender or food processor. If you go this route and prefer chunkier soups only blend 1/2 of the soup, leaving the rest in the pot. Just mix the blended half back into the pot and they will meld well.
This is an amazingly easy, filling, delicious soup, absolutely fit for company. The blended potato is so smooth, creamy, and rich in flavour that people often think the soup contains a lot of heavy cream and butter. And the subtle thyme notes are the perfect complement.
This recipe also feeds a lot of people–this particular pot I made ended up, over the course of two dinners, feeding 8 people. Although in the second dinner’s case, there was a large bowl of Ginger Slaw also involved.
I find this soup especially in demand and appropriate in Autumn and Winter menus.
Tags: comfort food, easy, potato, stock