Leek and potato soup, Mexican potato soup, pickle potato soup, bacon roasted potato chowder

 

One potato, two potato, three potato, four — potato soups, that is.

In October and November, I'm deep into soup-making mode to preserve produce ahead of winter. Then there's the holiday plunge into baking that interrupts that phase, during which I make pretty good inroads into the freezer soup supply. After the holidays, the race is on to use up all the potatoes and squash we bought at the farmers market in fall and store on an orchard rack in the basement. Even in an unheated Minnesota basement they won't last forever. There are starting to be buds on some of the potatoes, so soup's on.

Leek and potato soup
Adapted from “365 Great 20-Minute Recipes” by Beverly Cox

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

3 medium leeks, rinsed

3½ cup broth

1½ cup water or potato cooking water

3 cups mashed potatoes

2 cups half and half

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

⅛ teaspoon pepper

Method

Heat butter in a large saucepan over medium low heat and cook leeks until softened. Add broth, water and mashed potatoes, whisking to break up potato clumps. Cover and simmer until potatoes are smooth. Stir in cream, nutmeg and pepper and heat through. Serves 6 reliably.

 

Rating: Perfectly lovely use of leftover mashed potatoes, although the original recipe called for a package of frozen mashed potatoes, which I confess I had not been aware existed. I deliberately made extra potatoes the last time I mashed some so I'd have them for this recipe. My only quibble: Since the leeks are the only thing in the recipe that isn't perfectly creamy, they kind of seem almost chewy even though they were quite soft. I suspect it's just a texture contrast thing  Flavorwise it's quite nice. If I was making this for company I would probably reserve a few pale green leeks to sauté for a garnish just to add a spot of color.

Mexican potato soup

From Midwest Living magazine

Ingredients
¼ pounds russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups chicken broth
½ cup chopped onion
6 ounces uncooked chorizo sausage
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
½ cup milk
1 (4-ounce) can green chilies
1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
Sliced green onions

Method
In a large pot, combine potatoes, broth and onion. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In a skillet, cook chorizo over medium heat until browned and cooked through. Set aside and drain on paper towels.

Once potato mixture has cooled slightly, puree until smooth in a blender or food processor (or use an immersion blender in the pot). Return pureed mixture to the pop. Stir in yogurt, milk, green chilies, chipotle pepper and black pepper. Heat over medium heat. Stir in 1½ cups of the cheese until melted.

Serve topped with remaining cheese, chorizo and green onions.

Rating: Dave said it was like really thin mashed potatoes, but in a good way. He was not wrong. This is a very thick soup, and very tasty. Don't fear the heat; those potatoes need a bit of perking up, and that does the job nicely without being obtrusive. For those who avoid meat, the chorizo could certainly be skipped without missing it.

 

Polish pickle and potato soup

Adapted from a recipe by Pam Knutson of the erstwhile Birdsong Soups as submitted to the Star Tribune Taste section. She says you can either leave the vegetables and pickles in chunks or puree them. I opted to leave them in chunks, but I could see it working either way.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
Canola oil
2 onions, diced
3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 cups broth
4 large red or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
1½ cups chopped dill pickles, plus reserved pickle juice, divided (Knutson calls for 3 cups here, for those feeling bold)
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons flour
Fresh dill for garnish

Method
In large pot, melt butter with a splash of canola oil over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook until soft (you’re not trying to brown these). Add carrots and garlic and cook about 15 to 20 minutes. Add stock and potatoes. Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add pickles and cook another 10 minutes.

Stir sour cream and flour together and then stir into soup. Cook a few minutes until the flour is cooked and mixture is slightly thickened. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and reserved pickle juice. Serve topped with chopped fresh dill garnish. Serves 6 amply.

Rating: I figured this soup would be either bizarrely good or terribly wrong. I had an unopened jar of pickles that escaped my attention at the back of a cabinet that were certainly still edible, but no longer perfectly crisp, so I decided to give the soup a try to use them up. This soup is actively not bad flavorwise, although I wish I had had orange carrots on hand instead of yellow to add a bit more color. I only had so many pickles to use, so I only used half what was called for, and I’m OK with that decision. I did use the reserved pickle juice, and since this particular jar of dills had some red peppers for heat, it worked surprisingly well. I don’t know if I would set out to make it with a fresh jar of perfectly good pickles, but I can actually recommend this recipe as a great way to use up pickles in need of assistance. No, really.

 

Bacon roasted potato chowder
This soup is inspired by the Savory Bacon Potato Chowder on Land O'Lakes site (although cream of anything soup is not on the pantry shelf), Creamy Potato Chowder With Bacon on the Spruce Eats and this standby recipe for a roasted garlic variety.

But mostly it was inspired by the weather. It was 11-effing-below when we got up this morning, and minus 30 windchill. Happy New Year in Minnesota. When you don't even see dog walkers out and about, you know it's cold. So we decided to forgo any trips to the store and just cook what was in the house. This was the reasonably tasty result.

Ingredients
2 pounds small red-skinned potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 strips applewood smoked bacon, chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
7 cups broth
2 ears' worth of frozen corn, about 1½ cups
2 cups whipping cream
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon spice blend*

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel a quarter of the potatoes but leave the rest unpeeled. Chop into bite-size pieces. On a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle them with the olive oil, rosemary, salt and a generous grinding of black pepper. Toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes or until just starting to brown; you don't want these too crispy. Smash some or all of the peeled potatoes; this will make the chowder creamier.

Meanwhile, cook bacon in a large heavy pot over medium heat until it renders its fat. Add onion and cook over medium low heat until onion is soft. Stir in flour and cook and stir for two minutes. Add about a cup of the broth and stir to incorporate the flour and to deglaze the bottom of the pan.

Add remaining broth, all the potatoes, corn, cream, sour cream, onion powder and spice blend. Cook about 20 minutes to heat through and allow the flavors to blend. Adjust seasoning to taste as needed with salt and pepper. Serves 8 easily.

Rating: Not bad for a what's in the house soup. Not bad at all. I suspect the leftovers will be even better, as it strikes me as one of those even better the next day soups. I don't happen to like a super thick chowder, but if you do, you'd want to up the flour component to at least 3 tablespoons.

Definitely better than heading to the store. The only trip outside was to take all those potato peels to the compost bin and to brush the dusting of snow from the sidewalks.

*I used Forward spice blend because it's what I had in the house. I suspect Old Bay seasoning would be appropriate here, being a logical chowder ingredient. Forward is a mix of extra bold black pepper, onion, paprika, garlic, turmeric, spice extractives (including oleoresin of celery, rosemary, black pepper, thyme, basil and paprika). In other words, it's one of the free things that shows up in your Penzey's checkout cart depending on how much you order and you figure you'll use it in scrambled eggs.