Quick soups are the best lunch or dinner option for the cooler months! Warm up with a bowl of this quick, loaded baked potato soup packed with veggies and toppings. This quick soup has a broth base which makes it lighter than other heavy potato soups. This lighter baked potato soup option is perfect for a hearty meal that won't weigh you down but does not skimp on flavor!
Once the temperatures in Arizona hover around or below 100 degrees, I'm all about homemade soup. I know that may sound insane, but in Arizona, that is the sign that fall is coming! Now that it's the middle of October, we can call this fall weather, even if it is still warm.
Apart from cooler weather across the country, it's also the start of flu season. Our house has already been hit with the stomach flu a few weeks back and the only thing that sounded good to me was baked potato soup. I wasn't in the position to be cooking soup myself and found it hard to find any that I could order from a restaurant! So as soon as I was back on my feet, it was time to make this quick-loaded baked potato soup.
I love a creamy, almost-too-rich soup as much as the next girl, but I prefer something much lighter when I'm making a batch of soup at home. If you search around for baked potato soup recipes, you'll see that a lot of them have a lot of cream in them. If you don't eat dairy or if you just don't want a heavy soup, this is a problem. So I decided to experiment with flipping the typical ratio of broth to cream to see if I could come up with a lighter version of loaded baked potato soup.
The other pet peeve I have about soups is when they take all day to cook. Unless I'm using my slow cooker (which I don't use all that often), I'm not interested in something cooking all day. When you have a creamy base for a soup, it has to sit for a while just so that the cream thickens for the soup base. When your base is mostly broth, you don't have that problem. So this quick-loaded baked potato soup can be achieved in a little over 30 minutes which is perfect in my book!
Even with a lighter base for this recipe, I didn't want to skimp out on the fixin's in the soup. As with most soups, this recipe starts with mirepoix, which is simply minced/diced onions, carrots, and celery. There's also a bit of spinach, bacon and shredded cheese thrown into this soup at the end to make it a loaded baked potato soup. The bacon certainly isn't necessary if you are a vegetarian BUT if you're not, I highly encourage it. Each bite of soup I had with some bacon was exceptionally better than those bites without because of the saltiness it added!
Recommended Tools:
Ready to make your batch of Quick Loaded Baked Potato Soup? Scroll down for the recipe!
Quick Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Blueberry season is just around the corner, and what better way to start the day than with a delightful Blueberry Orange Muffin? Slightly sweet and delicious, these muffins sing of the summertime.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 ½ cups mirepoix (roughly equal parts celery (2 stalks), carrots (2), and onions (½ of an onion), minced)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 6 Yukon potatoes, peeled and cubed
- ½ cup spinach, ripped into pieces
- 4-6 slices cooked bacon (cooked ahead of time on skillet, in microwave or in oven), cut into pieces with kitchen shears or knife.
- ½ cup shredded cheddar or cheddar blend cheese
Instructions
- Wash and/or peel celery and carrots. Mince and set aside in a medium bowl.
- Mince onion and place in medium bowl with celery and carrots.
- Peel and chop potatoes into roughly one inch chunks. Place in separate bowl.
- In a stock pot, melt butter. Once melted add?mirepoix and cook until fragrant (2-3 minutes), stirring frequently. Add in garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasonings.
- After about a minute, add in flour and stir to coat vegetables.
- Pour in milk and cook on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then pour in half of chicken broth and stir.
- Pour in potatoes carefully and cover with remaining broth.
- Bring liquid to a slow boil and cook for 5 minutes. Then simmer for an additional 20 minutes until potatoes are tender with a fork.
- Add in spinach pieces and stir.
- If desired, use an immersion blender to break up larger chunks of veggies and potatoes (completely optional but makes for a fun texture and creaminess!)
- Using a ladle, pour into soup bowl. Top with bacon and cheese.
- If soup is too thick, pour in a splash of broth or cream.
Notes
Keep in fridge for up to one week.
Once cooled, pour into a plastic bag and lay flat in freezer. Freeze for up to 6 months.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 243Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 29mgSodium: 716mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 4gSugar: 5gProtein: 10g
Leave a Reply