Baked Potato Soup

I had this at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and it’s SOOOO GOOOOD!! (Score one for hospital food!)

This is my approximation of that recipe.

YIELD: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 stalk celery, diced
1 clove garlic, diced (optional)
4 small gold potatoes, baked

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 c milk (optional – if can’t tolerate milk, use water)
1/2 c water

Garnish:

salt and pepper to taste (pepper is optional, don’t use if you can’t tolerate it)
1 tsp fresh parsley, minced (optional)
1/4 c cheddar or pepper jack cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. In skillet or omelette pan or wok, cook onion, celery, carrot and garlic over medium heat until tender. Set aside.
2. In soup pot, add butter, let melt. Add flour, let brown. Add veggies, let sizzle. Add milk and water, let mix and thicken. Scoop out insides of three potatoes, add into soup pot. Let cook well and then let cool a little.
3. Blend to desired consistency (optional step).
4. Put blended soup back in soup pot. Add scooped out insides of last potato. Let cook for five minutes.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add parsley and cheese for garnish.
6. Enjoy!

Note: The optional stuff is what I added in that the hospital did not. If you’re on a healthy eating plan of some sort, keep the optionals optional 🙂 If you can’t tolerate solid food, make sure you blend very well, and skip the part in step five where you add in the unblended scooped out insides of the last potato.