Baked Potato Soup

What do you do when you have a whole bag of potatoes but don't want to mash or bake them?  You turn them into soup.  And it turns out more delicious than you expected it to.

I made this soup the night that it snowed a lot in Nashville and the city shut down.  They only thing that I needed to make the soup better was sour cream, which I was out of.  Jeremy wanted the soup really bad, so he volunteered to run to the store and grab some.  How sweet is he?  Later on that same night, I was craving orange juice like crazy and Jeremy decided once again to go out and get me some from the store, only this time, he did not succeed like he did with the sour cream.  He could not even get out of our apartment complex!  There were so many accidents and traffic jams around every outlet from our apartment that we were literally trapped in!  It was kind of exciting.  Glad he had gotten the sour cream beforehand so that we were able to enjoy being trapped in with a white outside and some warm delicious soup in our bowls.  The only thing that would have made it even better is if the power had gone out and we had to light candles...(after the soup was made of course).  I know I may seem strange, but I really like when the power goes out.  It feels cozy and old fashioned to have to do things by candle light, and I always enjoy it.  But the power did not go out.  Bummer.

But the soup was still good.  It was more than good.  Also very easy to make...once I got over the fear of being burnt once again by my blender while pureeing the soup!  I didn't really use a recipe, I just went for it trying to use up things in my kitchen.  I grabbed a leek, some garlic, potatoes and chopped them all up.  Sauteed and boiled, then blended everything together and added baked potato toppings and flavorings.  It was delicious, and the whole batch was gone very quickly.  The only thing missing was bacon bits.  Just wasn't feeling it.  But I'm sure it would have made it awesome!

Baked Potato Soup

1 leek, white and light green parts, thinly sliced.  (an onion would also be a good substitute here, but I like leeks)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 Yukon potatoes, peeled and chopped up into about 1-2 inch cubes
roughly 2 cups veggie broth (chicken broth would probably be fine also)
4 oz sour cream, more for topping
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, more for topping
4 Tablespoons butter, room temp
chives for topping
salt and pepper as needed


Sautee the leek and garlic in olive oil over med-hi heat until lightly browned and softened.  set aside.  Boil potatoes until cooked through (they should be able to be broken apart by a fork), about 20 minutes of boiling.  Drain the potatoes.  Add the potatoes and about a cup of broth to a blender (or be fancy and use an immersion blender to decrease your risk of the blender exploding!)  Blend until pureed.  Add more broth as needed to reach desired consistency  (we liked ours smooth and thick).  Blend in cheddar, butter, and sour cream just until mixed in.  Season the soup with salt and pepper and top with cheese, sour cream chives, or any other toppings you might like.

Enjoy!