It was had a fabulous year at our farmer’s market and add to that the abundance that was our garden this year and that makes lots of good food!
Sadly, Saturday was the last day our favorite farmer will be at the market and we will miss him but look forward to June when he will be back at the market again! However, over the past weeks, I have been stocking up on winter squash, pumpkins, onions, and garlic. We were gifted a huge bag of apples, which will be cooked this week. However, the big winner was the 50 lbs. of potatoes that we got for practically nothing.
Yes, you read that right – 50 pounds – which is A LOT of potatoes…
When life gives you potatoes, the only thing to do is to make some hearty potato soup!
Bacon Potato Soup (loosely based on this recipe)
- 6 large potatoes, peeled and cut in half.
- 1 lb of bacon ends (I got mine from Herb Britner’s Smoke House and Radiator Shop)
- 1 large onion, diced finely
- ½ c. flour
- 6 c. milk
- 1 block of sharp cheddar cheese (between 5-6 ounces) – grated
- 1/8 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
- Salt and pepper to taste
Place potatoes in salted water and bring to a boil. You want the water to be salty – don’t be shy – this will not make the potatoes salty, but it will give them good flavor! Cook them until fort tender, about 20-30 minutes. Drain and return the potatoes to the pot.
While the potatoes are cook the bacon ends in a large pot (I used an enameled cast iron dutch oven) over medium-high heat. When the bacon is crisped and cooked, drain and remove from the pot. Leave the bacon fat, turn heat down to medium, and add the diced onions, cooking until translucent, about 1 minute.
Add the flour to make a roux and cook about a minute. You don’t want to brown the roux, but rather just cook the flour a bit. Add the milk slowly while whisking to combine.
Roughly, mash the potatoes and add them to the milk mixture. Stir to incorporate – the milk mixture should be thickening nicely and the mashed potatoes should thicken it even more. Add the fresh grated nutmeg, stirring to combine.
Add in cooked bacon, reserving some to top the soup with, and add in 1 ½ cups of grated cheddar cheese and stir to combine well.
At this point, you want to taste the soup to see if it needs any additional salt and pepper.
Remove from heat and serve. Top with reserved bacon and some grated cheddar cheese and enjoy!
