I’m not a big fan of winter but on a cold day there’s nothing like hot soup to help make up for the fact that you’ll freeze solid if you walk out the front door.

This easy potato cheese soup recipe is my favorite pick-me-up on a cold winter day. It’s not low fat by any means but it’s a serious crowd pleaser and anything that is filled with as much cheese as this soup is is a sure winner.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of diced onion
• 3/4 cup diced carrot
• 3/4 cup diced celery
• 3/4 cup of butter
• Olive Oil
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/3 cup of cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 4 cups milk
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups shredded sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 large potatoes diced and cooked
• Optional: chopped parsley

Preparation

Combine the diced onion, carrot, and celery in the bottom of a large pot. I don’t mind these chopped a bit bigger but my kids prefer a smoother texture in this soup so we usually go with that. Add a bit of olive oil to the pan and cook until the veggies are transparent.

In a separate pot, boil water for your potatoes. Peel the potatoes and dice them in 1 inch cubes. Salt the water and add your potatoes. Boil until they are soft enough to stick a fork in but not overly mushy. I try and get these about the same softness that I would for potato salad.

Add the butter to the pan. As soon as that’s melted, add the flour, cornstarch, paprika, salt, and white pepper. If you haven’t tried white pepper before it is delicious! This recipe converted me and now I put it in everything. Cook the mixture, stirring continually, for about 10 minutes. The flour mixture will start to get a bit doughy as it cooks and that’s okay. You want to cook the flour out a bit so it doesn’t taste like raw flour in your soup.

Add the milk and chicken stock to your flour mixture and stir constantly until the soup thickens.

Drain your potatoes and add them into the soup. You can add as many potatoes as you want to this. This soup reheats beautifully but the potatoes do tend to soak up the extra liquid so if you want something more souplike rather than stewlike as leftovers I’d go easy on the potatoes.

Just before serving, add your shredded cheese. Top each bowl with a bit of chopped fresh parsley if wanted and enjoy!

This is one of my favorite soup recipes. It’s serious comfort food! I love it served with fresh rolls.

What’s your favorite soup recipe on a cold day?

 

This recipe was roughly adapted from the Canadian Cheese Soup recipe in the Lion House Classics Cookbook. This is one of my favorite cookbooks for classic comfort food.