Potato and Bacon Soup
I found this soup on a chat forum, but there were no instructions on the cooking method. I don’t know what the original soup tastes like, but my results were like a nice creamy chowder.
I finally found the original recipe, so I will post a link to it at the bottom.
This method is both easy to make and amazingly good.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound bacon, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced, plus one full bulb extra, roasted
- 8 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 4 cups chicken stock, or enough to cover potatoes*
- 3 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon dried tarragon – optional
- 3 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro or curly parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
- Optional: 2 or 3 cans baby clams.
*your stock needs to be flavourful, but not overly salty. It could be a vegetable stock instead if you want. I’ve even used those chicken in a mug type, they work too.
Cook the bacon in advance to crumble or cut up later. Add this with the celery towards the end of cooking. This gives a little crunch to the soup having a bit of crispness to the celery.
Slice up the onion and put it in a little pan with some bacon grease or butter to caramelize slowly. Then purée this into the white sauce which will be made from the flour, butter, and cream.
Roast a bulb of garlic. The flavour is totally different in roasted garlic — it’s mellowed, and chopped is a little spicy. This is why it’s nice to use both. To roast the garlic head, place in tin foil, drizzle olive oil all over, wrap up and roast for 30 min at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool, squeeze out the soft garlic.
This is never an exact science, check your garlic at 20 minutes to check for softness. Then it needs a little time to cool, or you’ll burn yourself.
Make your white sauce: melt the butter, stir in the flour until smooth, keep stirring for a couple of minutes then whisk in the cream. If you have a hand mixer/purée tool, use it to purée in the caramelized onion, the minced garlic, and the roasted garlic.
Have the above done in advance of cooking your potatoes, because the potatoes only take a short time to cook.
Put your cut up potatoes in a soup pot, cover with stock. Simmer. This
will only take 10 minutes or so, check early.
Once your potatoes are just about cooked, add in the sauce you made, the celery and bacon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. As soon as the potatoes are soft enough, you have soup!
If you feel like it’s too thick, whisk in a tiny bit of milk.
Some people prefer to use white pepper with cream sauces, it’s up to you. I like seeing the little black speckles, and whatever green herb I decide to use.
I added in the clams after others had eaten most of the potatoes, and the soup was looking a little thin. They were a great match! It was now a whole new soup!
Here’s a link to the original recipe which I’ve changed up somewhat
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13218/absolutely-ultimate-potato-soup
This soup is also nice to serve during any of the three autumn / winter celebrations – Mabon, Samhain, and Yule – cooler or downright frigid weather leading to cravings for warm, creamy soup.