Both Jeff and I are big soup fans. I discovered my love of soups when our family went on winter retreats to Beatenberg, Switzerland and they would serve the most delicious pureed soups with dinner every night. (This sounds fancy, but I grew up in Germany when my dad was stationed there in the military.)
Now that we’re in the thick of winter and I’m working on eating healthier, soup makes a great dinner as well as leftovers for lunches and busy evenings. We’ve been pairing it with a salad, skipping the crackers and bread. Here’s how I make grab & go salad jars for easy weeknights.
One of our favorites (and Marshall loves it, too) is this creamy potato soup. I found the basic recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (the red checkered one), but we all found it to be a bit bland, so I added some white wine, celery, garlic, and other seasonings. It’s still a mild soup, but it has more flavor now.
The printable recipe card is below, but here are the basics…
Peel and cut 8 golden potatoes. Boil until soft and drain.
Chop 1 sweet onion and 3 celery ribs.
Saute them over medium-high heat in 1 T butter and 1 tsp olive oil along with 1 clove (or 1 tsp) of minced garlic. Saute until soft.
Stir in 2 T of flour (to thicken). Add one cup of milk, reduce heat to low and stir until smooth.
Scrape the pan gently to remove “brown bits” (or fond) off the sides and bottom.
Add one box vegetable or chicken stock (unsalted) and 1/4 cup white wine. Bring back to a gentle boil. Add desired amount of salt & pepper. At this point, I dropped in the bay leaf, but I had to fish it right back out! So, don’t add it yet!
Add 3/4 of the boiled potatoes and puree with a stick blender (or by transferring it into a food processor or blender.)
Add remaining potatoes and bay leaf. Allow soup to simmer for 10 minutes.
If it were just me eating it, I would puree all of the potatoes, because I like pureed soups. If it was up to Jeff, he wouldn’t puree it at all, because he likes chunky soups. So, you can do whatever you prefer!
The thing I like about this soup is that it’s creamy, but it’s not heavy. You could always treat it like a baked potato and top it with some bacon, cheese, sour cream, broccoli, etc. if you want to spice it up a bit more.
I’m sure this creamy potato soup will be a favorite in your house too.
Here are some other easy weeknight soups that I think you will enjoy.
Creamy Weeknight Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 8 golden potatoes
- 1 sweet onion
- 3 celery ribs
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1 box vegetable or chicken stock unsalted
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp olive oil
Instructions
- Peel and chop potatoes. Boil in lightly salted water until soft. Drain and set aside.
- While potatoes are boiling, chop onion, celery, and garlic. Saute in a large pan/soup pot over medium heat in butter and olive oil.
- Once vegetables are soft, add flour and stir for about a minute. Add 1 cup of milk, reducing heat to low, and stir until smooth. Add stock and wine and bring to a boil.
- Add 3/4 of cooked potatoes to soup. Puree with an immersion blender if desired. Add remaining potatoes and bay leaf. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
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