Eating With Liz 2011 - Potato Soup

I never did get around to making something new last week. I was lucky if I ate anything at my house that wasn't cereal. Last week was difficult. But onwards and upwards...

Last week I got a call from my husband and he told me to get a paper and a pen so I could write something down for him. So I did. Then he said, "I want some really good potato soup." and I was like, "Okay." and then he was all, "did you write it down?" and I said, "what?" and he said, "The fact that I want some really good potato soup." ... Apparently he wanted some potato soup. After some internet perusing I came up with this little recipe for my Crockpot: 

Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Serves/Makes: 6   

Ingredients:
6 large baking potatoes, peeled, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1 quart chicken broth
3 cloves garlic, minced (or pressed)
1/4 cup butter
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup cream or half-and-half cream
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 cup sour cream (optional)
8 slices bacon, fried & crumbled
cheese, for sprinkling

Directions:
Combine first seven ingredients in a large Crockpot; cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours (potato should be tender).
Mash mixture until potatoes are coarsely chopped and soup is slightly thickened. Stir in cream, cheese and chives.

Top with more sour cream, sprinkle with bacon and more cheese.   

A few things I did differently from the recipe:

    I used Kosher Salt, hoping to cut down on the salt-y-ness of the 2.5 tsp's.

    I used 4 Large Potatoes. They filled up the pot just fine.

    I added the Sour Cream and Bacon to the soup instead of using it for garnish.

    I just used my wooden spoon and smashed a few of the potatoes to thicken it.

   

All in all the soup was pretty good. Except for one little issue I had with the onions...

I thought I was all ready to make this for Sunday dinner, but when I pulled myself out of bed at 8 am to put together the soup I found that all the onions I had in my kitchen had rotted out. I had to throw them all away and use dried onions.

Here's my problem with dried onions... I never know how much to use. They're dried into such tiny little morsels that when the recipe calls for a large onion I look at the dried ones and wonder to myself "how does that equate out into these?" And as luck would have it - I always end up using too much.

Does 1 cup dried onion equal 1 cup fresh onion? Answer: NO.

So when it came to the onions yesterday I failed. It almost makes me want to turn in to one of those crazies that don't put onions in anything... but that would just be silly. I love onion.

The rest of the recipe was really simple, and in the end (aside from the onions) it was really good. It smelled good cooking all day, and it even tasted great off the spoon... but when you set a bowl of it in front of the diners it was just too onion-y. After we'd had our servings of the soup we dished out some for lunches the next day and threw the rest of the pot out.

Now, don't get me wrong, this soup would have been really good if I hadn't put in too many onions. I will try this recipe again. Maybe next time I'll make sure I have fresh onions, or maybe skip the onion all together.