Meatless Monday: Potato Cheese Soup

Brrrr! Now that the warm weather is heading south for the winter, it’s time to break out the stews, soups, slow cookers, and hoodies. One of my favorite things about fall are all the yummy, filling dishes I can throw together in the slow cooker and watch simmer all day long. The CSA I belong to has four weeks remaining, and I’ve recently been inundated with potatoes. What’s a girl to do with so many potatoes? Why, make potato cheese soup, of course!

Admittedly, potato cheese soup has always intimidated me. It always seemed like there were a lot of steps and I would get flustered easily. But after a quick internet search, I found what seemed to be an easy enough recipe to follow. I tried it, adapted it to make it vegetarian, and my god, I think I’ve found the potato soup recipe for my family.

Slow Cooked Potato Cheese Soup

adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1/4 C butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 C all-purpose flour
• 2 C water
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 4 stalks celery, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 C milk
• 2 vegetable bouillon cubes
• 1 C warm water
• 5 pounds potatoes (any variety but I used Yukon gold), peeled and cubed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 C shredded cheddar cheese (to make this vegan, sub with vegan cheese)
• 6 slices of vegetarian “bacon,” cooked crisp and crumbled
• thinly sliced chives for garnish

Directions

Dissolve vegetable base in 1 cup of warm water. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion in the butter until translucent. Stir in flour until smooth. Slowly stir in 2 cups water, carrots, celery, garlic, salt and pepper. Heat through. Stir in milk. Pour dissolved vegetable bouillon over the vegetable mixture.

Place potatoes in the slow cooker and pour the vegetables over potatoes. Place the bay leaf in the cooker and cover. Cook for 8 hours on low (or 5 hours on high).

Remove the bay leaf. Remove 4-5 cups of the soup and blend in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Place the pureed soup back into the slow cooker. Add cheese and bacon and stir until the cheese is melted.

Serve with a few “bacon” crumbles, sour cream, sliced chives — make it your own! Enjoy!

Your turn! What’s YOUR favorite cool weather dish?

xo

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