Baked Potato Soup with Bacon and Broccoli

In this week's meal plan I had decided to make Baked Potato Soup with Bacon on Wednesday. By Wednesday, both my daughter, Ginger and her Boyfriend, Dan had been diagnosed with the Flu. They were in real bad shape, we don't know if they actually had the swine flu because we took them to Urgent Care and they could not tell us either way. Dan actually had it worse, they gave him Tamiflu but Ginger was not as bad (she wouldn't agree with this but thats what they said) Anyway, they were not in any condition to cook for themselves so I decided to double up the batch of Baked Potato Soup and take some to them so they didn't have to worry about cooking. I changed the recipe up a bit to suit my daughter's taste, basically adding more bacon, broccoli and less onion.



Ingredients:

• 10 medium sized potatoes, baked, cooled and shredded
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 pound of bacon, chopped, fried and drained
• 8 cups of chicken broth ( I had 4 cups that I had made in August in the freezer, and I used 1 32 oz. carton as well)
• 2 TBLS flour
• 1 box of Green Giant Broccoli in Cheese sauce
• 1 C. chopped frozen broccoli
• 1 C. Milk
• Black Pepper

In an Electric Pot, or large pot, cook the bacon until done but not crunchy. Drain grease, leaving 3 TBLS in the pot.

Add the onions, cook until soft and translucent. Add garlic. Dont let the garlic burn! It only needs to cook for a minute or 2, just long enough for it to soften.


Add 2 TBLS of Flour, stir into the onions and garlic, keep stirring until mixture becomes thickened (like you would for a gravy base).


Add 4 C. Chicken Broth - I had some home made in the freezer that I used for this.


Add Black Pepper


Add the shredded potatoes and bacon back into the Pan. Stir to mix. Let simmer for 20 minutes until the soup is thick and bubbly, adding additional chicken stock as you go to keep it from getting to thick. You need to stir this frequently, the potatos tend to sink to the bottom of the pan and will burn if you dont.


At this point, I took my Emulsion blender and blended the soup until it was a bit smoother, again, adding chicken broth as needed to keep the soup thick but not gloppy thick.

Now:


Add 1 box of Green Giant Broccoli in cheese sauce and 1 C. of chopped broccoli. Keep stirring! This soup is thick and will burn, even on low heat.


Once the Broccoli has heated, Add milk, a little at a time, until the soup is has thinned enough to your taste. It will still be thick though.


Serve hot, adding a dollop of sour cream and a few cranks of black pepper and salt to taste.

You will notice that I did not add any additional salt to the recipe. I thought that the bacon would be salty enough for our taste, and I have a house full of people with high blood pressure so I tend not to cook with salt that much anyway.

It really looks awful in the photo, doesn't it? But, my daughter said it was the best Potato soup she had ever had! Thats a rare compliment from her, she is a pretty picky eater. She wanted the recipe (so here ya go Ging!)

My Husband and Dad said it was probably the best Potato soup they had too, despite the rather gruelish appearance. They ate it all up! Now, Im going to have to figure out something else for Saturday's leftover round up, cuz I dont have any leftovers!