Delicious Creamy Potato Soup

Delicious Creamy Potato Soup

As always, gather your ingredients. This is a fairly simple soup. You will need a handful of potatoes, I suggest white potatoes, not red skinned potatoes. Red potatoes are waxy rather than starchy. Also, carrots, a nice onion, celery, butter, condensed milk and instant mashed potatoes. 

Peel and cut your potatoes. 

Put potatoes chunks, cut up carrots, celery, and onion into your stock pot and add at least double the amount of water you need to cover the vegetables. This is a very forgiving recipe. More water equals more soup. :) 

So, living in France has presented challenges. Like figuring out basic food items. Some are more obvious than others. I'm learning every day! And, no, I don't speak French. I am taking lessons, so I am learning. Salt and pepper here. 

So, with soup pot coming to a boil, lower the heat.

Cover and allow to simmer for 45 minutes or so, until the potatoes are soft. 

Once the potatoes are soft, use your potato masher and smash the potatoes up a bit. The point is not to have them be completely mashed, just to bring the pieces down smaller and to spread them around in the broth. 

I love this soup without meat, but my husband prefers meat in his soups. So, I added two small smoked sausages. Good additions to this soup are also ham and cooked bacon. Don't feel you need to add meat, you certainly don't. If you do add meat, allow the soup to simmer another 10-15 minutes to incorporate the smokiness from the meat into the broth. 

When everything is cooked and soft, add a pat or two of butter. 

Add one whole can of evaporated milk
(For goodness sake, make sure it's not sweetened condensed milk!!)

With temperature on low, stir everything up and allow new ingredients to come up to temperature. Stir frequently to make sure nothing scorches to the bottom of the pot. 

To thicken up the broth, sprinkle in instant mashed potato flakes. Add a little at a time. Stirring and incorporating as you go. You just want to thicken the soup, not turn it into a thick oatmeal consistency. When it is the consistency you prefer, it's pretty much done!

One last taste, add salt and pepper to taste and soup is served!

Doesn't that look delicious!? 

Sitting in the sunshine, out on the balcony. This really hits the spot! Enjoy!