Potato Soup

One of the things I almost always enjoy about the changing in seasons is the food.  I can’t help it!  I am invigorated by trying new things, but old classics that scream “Fall!” or “Summer!” don’t have to yell too loudly at my door.  While the rhubarbs and berries and stone fruits of summer fade, the squashes and peppers and potatoes and apples are flowing from the horn o’ plenty around here.  We got a box of produce from my in-laws when they came for Anja’s birthday, and though much of it had been eaten, we don’t consume potatoes often enough to do away with 10 lbs of them in a week and a half. Ha!

So I made potato soup.  I can’t recall if I’ve made it before.  I think I did, from this or that cookbook.  This time I made my own recipe, and it actually turned out well.  So I’ve decided to share with you.  Take it and make it your own with add-ins and tweaks.  It’s fun, cooking.  Now some of you will be able to just take the recipe and run with it, but for others who might be newer to cooking and need a little visual help, I’ve added some photos.

The little pumpkin you’ll see in a couple of the photos is Anja’s necklace that she had to have at Jo-Ann Fabrics the other day.  It has a little rattly thing inside, so we’ll say “Shake shake shake” to her and she shakes it.  She can’t quite figure out how to put it on herself, but she is good at letting us know when she wants to wear it.

Anyhow…

I stuck to the recipe pretty much, with a few exceptions I’ll point out.

One, do you see that funny looking thing on the right that’s not quite and onion, not quite a potato?  It’s a rutabaga.  Not on the recipe, but it went fine in my soup.  I added it to the onions and celery while they sauteed.  An unpictured item that I also added during that step was a clove of garlic, minced.

I went with chicken broth, but I’m sure if you don’t have it on hand water will do just fine.  You might need to up the salt in that case.

Do you have a chopper? I have had mine 5 years and it’s still going strong (with very regular use). I adore Pampered Chef!

Here’s all the veggies chopped up, the boilers on the left and the sauteers on the right.  I started the boiling about 7 minutes before I began sauteeing.

The sauteers:

The boilers:

Sorry, the lighting in my kitchen isn’t the best…it’s more appetizing in person!

I measured the spices on top of the flour while the other things were cooking to save me some time. I think ahead like that.

This was after I’d stirred in the milk:

And here’s the finished product:

I don’t have the final “in my bowl before I eat it” photo because I was too busy feeding Anja’s face. Babies aren’t too patient when it comes to mealtime. Here’s that recipe in case you need it again…