Creamy and comforting, potato soup is the quintessential winter soup.

Creamy potato soup is as comforting as a soup can get and is a family favorite. Everytime the weather gets cold and snowy I always whip up a pot of this soup. My potato soup is very satiating without being too heavy. By relying on the potato’s starch, you don’t need to add a lot of cream to achieve this unctuous soup.

Creamy Potato Soup

4 TBSP unsalted butter

1 smoked pork chop or a pound of smoked bacon

1 large white onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

6-8 medium sized white potatoes, peeled and diced

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

2 bay leaves

2 quarts of stock or water

1 tsp dried chives

1 tsp dried parsley

¼ cup heavy cream

¼ cup sharp cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste 

In a heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven, melt butter on medium heat. While the butter is melting, cut your meat into bite size pieces. Turn up heat to medium high, add pork and cook until browned. Once browned, remove pot from the heat and with a slotted spoon remove the meat. Set aside until the end. 

Put the pot back on medium low heat and add the onions, scraping off little brown bits left behind from meat with your cooking onions. The water cooking out of the onions will loosen the fond so it can add flavor to the soup. Cook until they start to soften then add the celery. Once the onion and celery start to brown add the garlic, cook until fragrant.

Once your aromatics are cooked add the diced potatoes, paprika, garlic powder and bay leaves.

Stir and cook for 5 minutes. Add your stock or water, make sure everything is covered. Turn the heat up to medium high until boiling. When the soup starts to boil, turn it down to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender; about 30 minutes.

When the potatoes are tender, remove the bay leaves and blend the soup with an immersion blender. Blend until you have reached your desired consistency, I like to blend it until completely smooth but you can leave it a little chunkier if you prefer. 

Add cheddar, heavy cream, browned pork, chives and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot with extra cheese, sour cream or my favorite croutons. 

*Notes:  Be careful when browning the meat, you don’t want the meat to brown too quickly before the fat renders from it. All that fat is needed to enhance the soup’s flavor. 

You have the option to either use stock or water for this recipe. If you use stock the soup will be richer and if you use water the soup will have a strong potato flavor. The choice is yours!

If you don’t have an immersion blender you can easily use a standard blender. Just be careful when transferring the soup to and from the blender.