One potato, two potato, three potato, four! This loaded baked potato soup is a staple in our house during the chilly months, which, let’s be honest, is sometimes October through June here in Chicago. That makes my meat-and-potatoes husband very happy.
A steakhouse-style baked potato with sour cream, cheese, green onions and … bacon?! This is the soup form. Comforting, delicious and creamy, yet surprisingly healthier than you’d think as it’s made with milk instead of heavy cream.
Em has not quite mastered the whole spoon-to-mouth-without-spilling-it-all-straight-down-your-bib thing, so she likes to eat her soup as a dip for oyster crackers. Soup’s tough for those little toddler hands. She has no problem, however, with the whole extra-bacon-on-the-side thing. Can you tell she’s a daddy’s girl?
The only time-taker here is baking the potatoes, which you could actually do in the microwave in a fraction of the time if you’re in a pinch. Often, I’ll throw the potatoes in the oven at lunchtime so they have plenty of time to cool. You could even bake them on the weekend and store the mashed potatoes in the fridge until soup time later in the week. After the potatoes are baked, the soup comes together in about 25 minutes, making this a definite possibility for a weeknight dinner. And if you wanted to make this vegetarian, just leave out the bacon!
Bring on the hat and mittens…
Little Hands Can..
- Wash and scrub the potatoes
- Mash the cooked and cooled potatoes with a fork or potato masher
- Crumble the bacon
- Measure out the flour, salt, pepper and sour cream
- Divide the cheese and green onions into two piles (one pile of each that goes into the soup and one pile of each for soup toppings)
- 4 baking potatoes (Russet potatoes work best)
- 6 slices of bacon
- 6 cups milk (I've used nonfat, 1%, 2% and whole and all work out just fine)
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup flour
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup sour cream
- ¾ cup chopped green onions, divided
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Wash and scrub the potatoes well. Pierce the potatoes all over with a fork or paring knife. Bake for 1 hour or until a paring knife slides easily into the cooked potato with no resistance.
- Cool, peel and coarsely mash the potatoes.
- Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large frypan until crispy. When it's cool, crumble the bacon.
- Warm the milk on the stovetop or in the microwave. A warm liquid will help your soup thicken quicker when it's added to the flour/butter mixture.
- In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter. Add the flour and whisk, letting it cook for a 1-2 minutes. It will be fairly crumbly at this point.
- Gradually add the warm milk, whisking consistently to get rid of any lumps.
- Cook the milk mixture over medium heat until it's thickened and bubbly, about 15 minutes. Whisk frequently as you don't want the milk to burn. The soup will thicken even more when you add the starchy potatoes and other ingredients.
- Once the mixture has thickened, add the mashed potatoes, ¾ cup of cheese, salt and pepper. Stir until the cheese melts.
- Add the sour cream and ½ cup of the green onions.
- Cook over low heat for about 10 minutes or until everything is heated through.
- Serve the hot soup and top with cheese, green onions and crumbled bacon.
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light
On the Side
We’re using the very versatile potato to make art! Potato stamp art, that is. When you pick up your potatoes for the soup, grab an extra one or two to make your very own potato stamps. When I first researched how to make potato stamps, I was a little nervous that it would take way too long to carve out the shapes we wanted for our stamps. I was pleasantly surprised that they only took a few minutes!
You’ll need:
- potatoes
- small cookie cutters
- paring knife
- paper (we used a heavy weight art paper, or construction paper)
- paint (we used some washable paint that we purchased at Target)
- small plates
First, cut your potato into pieces. You can cut the potato in half and make two larger stamps, or cut the potato into three or four large slices to make smaller stamps (easier for toddler-sized hands).
Once you have your potato pieces, there are a few ways to make the stamp designs:
- Using a small cookie cutter that will fit on the flat surface of the potato, push the cookie cutter about ½ inch into the potato. Using your paring knife, cut away the excess potato from the outside of the cookie cutter. Once the excess potato is removed, pull the cookie cutter out and your stamp is ready to use.
- Using a small paring knife, cut your own freehand design into the flat surface of the potato. The tip of a paring knife is great for cutting out small details.
- If you sliced your potato into 3 or 4 large slices, you can cut the potato piece itself into a shape. It will still be big enough for your child to hold onto one side while dipping the other side into the paint.
Once you’ve made your stamps, pour your paint colors onto small plates. Kids can dip their stamps into the paint and create whatever they’d like! If you’re interested in taking it a step further, encourage them to create patterns with their stamp art.
Disclaimer: As with all of our recipes, my suggestions for how kids can help with a particular recipe are based on what has worked in our kitchen. Your child may be able to help more or less based on their age and/or ability. As always, make sure you are properly supervising kids in the kitchen.
Kristy says
October 15, 2015 at 9:37 AMI love the painting with potato idea! My daughter would still love to do that at age 7! Definitely going to do that this fall/winter. Your soup looks delicious and comforting.
Sally says
October 15, 2015 at 2:34 PMThank you, Kristy! Honestly, I liked playing with the stamps too! The moisture in the potatoes seems to keep the stamps somewhat “clean” as you’re painting, which makes for a less messy painting experience in general. We were able to play with the stamps for quite a while before tossing them out. Have fun!
Linda Toonen says
October 16, 2015 at 8:10 AMHi Sally,
The pictures are fantastic, the soup looks delicious, and I love the “On the Side” feature. Your blog is terrific! I had the blog up when one of my students came to my office, and she wants to follow you.
Linda
Sally says
October 16, 2015 at 3:31 PMThat’s so great, thank you! I hope your student enjoys following along as well.
Mary says
October 17, 2015 at 9:49 AMOh my goodness, the baked potato soup sounds wonderful! Loved seeing Emme enjoying her art.
Sally says
October 19, 2015 at 1:16 PMThanks, Mary! It is SO good, and very comforting for this chilly fall weather 🙂
Erin Melton says
October 24, 2015 at 2:38 PMSally! The soup was delicious! My girls enjoyed smashing the potatoes in a Ziploc bag :). I used a gluten free blend for the flour (hubby has Celiac) and it was still fabulous. Thank you!!
Sally says
October 24, 2015 at 5:15 PMErin, I’m so glad you made the soup and that everyone enjoyed it! Thank you for the information too on how to adapt the recipe to be gluten-free. Great information. Thank you!