Not Your Average Potato Soup!

   Well fall is just around the corner which means comfort food heaven!! Fall is without a doubt my favorite season. It's not quite here yet but I came up with a soup to celebrate my excitement for the up coming season. 

This soup I came up with from several different recipes with a twist of my own. It tastes like fall to me. Does that make sense?? 

 If you have never had parsnips then this is the recipe to try them in. They are in almost every grocery store. They look like white carrots. 

Let's get started!

Cut about a half a pound of bacon into small chunks. To be honest next time I will probably use a pound. I know! That's a lot but they were just a little to scarce in the soup for my taste. 

   Fry your bacon up until crisp and set aside. 

While you bacon is cooking peel and chop up 3-4 parsnips, 2 carrots and 2 stalks celery with the leafy greens on too. Those little leaves are full of flavor!! 

   Chop up your carrots, parsnips and celery. Leave a few tablespoons of bacon grease in your pan. Mine didn't produce a whole lot of grease so I added a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Add the parsnips, carrots and celery to the hot oil and start to sweat them out. While those are cooking peel and chop up 4-5 medium Idaho potatos and half a white or yellow onion. Also a little twist of mine was adding some cauliflower. I used about 1/4 of a head. At my grocery store you can buy the cauliflower already cut up so I didn't have to buy a whole head. If you decide to add it but are worried about the left over getting wasted chop it up and roast it with some olive oil and a pinch of sea salt and pepper. When it's done roasting top your soup with it. Why I didn't think of this at the grocery store I don't know. Next time I will definetly be topping my soup with roasted cauliflower!!! 

Make sure to grate in a few cloves of garlic as well.

Chop up some fresh thyme. Make sure to remove leaves from the woody stems. I added about 3 tablespoons. (About 3-4 stems)

   Add all of that to the pot and sweat it all out until it's mostly tender. To nudge it along a little faster (and to keep it from browning) put a lid on it. Make sure you cock the lid so steam can escape. 

   Make sure everything is seasoned and add some sea salt and black pepper. Stir everyone around. Your potatos will start to "mush" up a bit. When that happens add about a quart and a half of chicken stock. Or about 6 cups. I let that simmer for a few minutes to make sure all the veg is tender. 

   Now it's time to purée everything together. 

Remember that immersion blender I always talk about?? Yep I'm using that! Surprise surprise! Remember you can always do this in batches in your blender or food processor but the immersion blender is SO much easier! 

Purée until smooth. 

  Now taste and season. Take into account the bacon you will be adding. 

   Let this simmer on low for a bit for all the flavors to combine. I felt like I needed a little more texture to the soup so I decided to make the simplest croutons to top the soup with. Next time I'll be topping it with roasted cauliflower! 

I had some baguette on hand so I cubed it up. Preheat your oven to 400. Melt a little butter in a pan and infuse it with some smashed garlic. Coat your croutons and season them. Bake until they start to brown. 

   Now while your croutons or cauliflower are in the oven add your bacon to the soup. Turn off the heat and stir in about a half a cup to 3/4 of a cup of heavy whipping cream. (Whichever you prefer) 

   I topped my soup with my croutons, chives and sharp cheddar. I suggest a little dollop of sour cream as well. When I ate some of the leftovers I added a little sour cream and it really brought the whole dish together!

  I hope you all enjoyed this. Remember you can make this dish your own. You can omit the parsnips and cauliflower and just use potatos. I think the parsnips really give the soup something special and they help it "taste like fall". :) 

 

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