There are some days that the sun just refuses to come out. This can either bring us to the depths of despair, or we can repeatedly use the word, “cozy” throughout the day in an effort to cheer ourselves. It has been rather gloomy here lately, so we decided to make cozy potato soup, as this does wonders for your mood on a rainy day!
Most of the soups that we kids enjoy are pureed and mashed up so that you cannot tell if any vegetables are hiding in them. This is why we like our squash soup recipe so much. However, this recipe is one of the few that we will eat with chunks.
First Steps of Making this Potato Soup Recipe
The only problem we have with soups is how much chopping is involved! But after your potatoes, ham, onions, and celery are prepared, this is a really easy recipe.
As with our squash soup, we tend to like more potatoes than most recipes call for. For this recipe, we decided to use 4 cups instead of 3 and a half. We also increased the celery in our version. It is really the only vegetable in this soup, and we figured Mom would be happy if we added a bit more.
Once we had our ingredients ready, we added them to our stock pot to boil them until the potatoes were tender.
How to Make a Roux
Are we fancy or what? Look at us using French terms in our recipes! Mom told us the proper way to pronounce this is, “Roo.” She then told us a very funny story. A friend of hers, who was an excellent cook, suggested that my Mom make a beef stew with a Roux for a large group of people because she thought it would be easy. Poor Mom had no idea what she was doing and ended up making a paste! Everyone had to throw away her stew.
Admittedly, this can be a bit intimidating. But after reading the directions a few times, we worked together and it turned out just fine!
The first step is to make sure you melt your butter without burning it. Then, add your flour to the saucepan. Do not stop stirring! Once all the flour was added, we kept whisking for a full minute, which seemed like a lot of time.
We found it easier to have one of us pour the milk in while the other one kept stirring. You want your milk to go in slowly, to avoid lumps.
Once it is smooth, you still can’t stop stirring! The recipe said it would start to get thick in 5 minutes, so we set a timer because we wanted to make sure we didn’t get impatient.
Although it felt like forever, and we had to take turns stirring, it eventually did get thick!
Cozy Potato Soup Makes Gloomy Weather Better
Next, we added the Roux to our soup and let it sit for a few minutes.
Mom pulled some fresh bread out of the oven. We have to admit, this soup did help our moods on this rainy day.
Cozy Potato Soup Kids Can Make
This recipe is perfect to make a gloomy day feel cozy!
Ingredients
- 4 Cups Russet Potatoes, Peeled and Cubed
- 1 1/2 Cups Cooked Honey Ham, Cubed
- 1 Cup Celery Diced Small
- 1/2 Cup Onion Diced Small
- 4 Cups Chicken Broth
- 5 Tablespoons Butter
- 1/4 Cup and 1 Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
- 2 Cups Milk
- 1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- Salt to Taste
Instructions
- In a large pot, combine potatoes, ham, celery, onions, and chicken broth. Bring to a low boil and cook over medium heat until vegetables are fork-tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and whisk in flour. Cook, stirring constantly until flour is golden, about one minute.
- Slowly add in milk, continuing to stir so that no lumps form and cook until mixture is thick, about 5 minutes.
- Pour flour and milk mixture into the soup and stir. Add pepper, and salt to taste.
Notes
Adapted From Baking Mischief