Loaded Potato Soup - recipe

The last few days in Alabama have been ahhh-mazing. 

Highs in the 70's, a slight breeze, leaves beginning to fall from the trees. I love the anticipation of fall. Football season has begun and I wore jeans and a sweater the other day!

I'm pretty excited that I can now {without feeling completely crazy} get back to making some of my favorite recipes ... soups!

In the midst of the crisp air and perfect temps, I whipped up this recipe. So so yummy!!

Ingredients:

 - 2/3 cup of butter
 - 2/3 cup of flour
   - 7 cups of milk
  - 4-5 large baking potatoes

 - 4 green onions, sliced thinly
  - 12 ounces of bacon

  - 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
  - 1 cup of sour cream
  - 3/4 tsp of salt

 - 1/2 tsp pepper

 - 1 tsp garlic powder 

I know the list may sound like a lot, but when you really look at it, you probably have most of these things in your kitchen already. I only had to buy the potatoes, green onions, and bacon. 

Speaking of bacon, instead of actually cooking and crumbling bacon for this, I bought the Oscar Meyer Real Bacon Bits. It's near the salad dressing and essentially is an itty bitty bag of real cooked bacon already crumbled up for you. Perfect!

Also, this recipe is picture heavy. That's because I'm ridiculously over thorough {sorry}. You're really just mixing all of these ingredients in a large pot. Seriously. A caveman could do it.

First, cut up your potatoes into smaller pieces. Instead of taking forever to bake these, I boiled them on the stove for about 15 minutes. Then I set them aside while I mixed the other ingredients. 

Grab a large pot and melt your butter. Add the flour and whisk until it's smooth.

Add milk, one cup at a time and whisk while adding. Yup, it's going to look really thin afterwards. 

But don't fret!

Remember those cooked potatoes? Well odds are, they aren't in small enough pieces for the soup yet. Grab your potato masher and give them a quick once over. Not to much though! We're not making mashed potatoes here - lumps are your friend!

Add your potatoes and green onions {thinly sliced} to the soup and bring the pot to a boil. 

Once it's boiling, reduce to a simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Be stirring continuously.

 

Next add your cheese, bacon, and sour cream. Mix until the cheese has melted.

 

 

 

 

And finally add your salt, pepper and garlic powder. 

Mix it up for the finished product!

I like to serve mine up with an extra little dab of sour cream, bacon and cheese on top.

This is obviously a nice big batch of soup. If you don't serve it all in one sitting, I'd recommend adding a tablespoon of water to it when heating it up to thin it out a bit. The reheat heated soup is just as delicious!!

 

 

Enjoy!!