Creamy Potato Soup

This Creamy Potato Soup is smooth, creamy, and delicious. It can only be described as serious comfort food in a bowl that’s quick and easy to make. A simple recipe perfect for a cold day.

Easy Creamy Potato Soup

Creamy soups don’t have to be bad for you. Clocking in at 325 calories a serving, this soup is not too shabby in the calorie department. But besides a decent calorie count, this soup has a lot going for it, literally and figuratively.

It’s easy, relatively quick, rich and creamy, not to mention full of flavor and oh so comforting, especially this time of year. The best thing about this soup is that you can load it up with all your favorite toppings such as cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream, green onions and whatever else you can think of.

So this soup here embodies everything I love about baked potatoes, the cheese and the bacon, oh yeah the bacon. So how can you go wrong here? You can’t!

• Potatoes – such as Yukon gold or russets. My favorite are Yukon gold though because they really are an all purpose potato, they’re nice and buttery plus I love their golden color.
• Bacon – I like to use a thick cut applewood smoked bacon, but any bacon will do. For a vegetarian version, simply omit the bacon and sprinkle the soup with a bit of smoked paprika for a little smoky flavor.
• Onion and garlic – No soup is complete without onion and in my opinion garlic. The onion caramelizes nicely and provides a little bit of sweetness to soups.
• Flour – All-purpose flour is all you need. The flour is used to thicken the soup.
• Half And Half – Half cream and half milk, this 10% cream is great to make the soup extra creamy and delicious.
• Chicken broth – The main broth in our soup, try and go with a low sodium version or no sodium added broth.
• Herbs – Dried basil and oregano are used to provide a little depth of flavor to our soup.
• Salt and pepper – To taste.

Other Toppings:

• Cheddar cheese
• Green onions
• Sour cream

Like most of my recipes, this soup is easy peasy! Just follow the simple steps below and you’ll have a delicious meal on the table in under an hour!

The first step is to start cooking the potatoes! Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Then add the potatoes and cook them for about 15 minutes or until they are fork-tender. You can also bake them in the oven for about 45 minutes at 425°F (218°C).

Next, you need to cook the bacon. To do this, add the strips of bacon to a large skillet and fry them over medium heat until perfectly crisp. Next, place the cooked bacon on a plate lined with paper towels to drain and then crumble it into pieces. Now, reserve 2 tablespoons of the rendered bacon grease and discard the rest. You can also cut the bacon into pieces before frying it if you prefer.

After you’ve fried the bacon, add the reserved 2 tablespoons of bacon fat to a large Dutch oven or pot. Then add the onion and sauté it over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until it’s soft and translucent. Next, add the garlic and sauté for just another 30 seconds until aromatic.

Finally, stir in the dried basil, oregano, salt, and black pepper to begin building flavor. 

To start, sprinkle the flour over the sautéed veggies and cook the mixture for about a minute while stirring. This is done to remove the raw flour taste.

Now, pour in the chicken broth a cup at a time while stirring to blend it in and prevent any lumps.

Then stir in the heavy cream and bring the soup to a boil. 

Once the soup comes to a boil, add the cooked potatoes and cook everything together for another 10 minutes over medium-low heat while stirring from time to time. Then after the soup has thickened up, stir in just half of the crumbled bacon bits. Finally, give it a taste and add more salt and pepper to season if necessary.  

When your creamy potato soup is ready, ladle it into your favorite bowls. Then top it with the remaining crispy bacon and some yummy toppings like shredded sharp cheddar cheese, sour cream, and green onions if you like!

How Do You Thicken Up Potato Soup

There are different ways to thicken potato soup. In this recipe, I use a combination of flour and half and half to do the job. The flour works by creating a roux that thickens the soup. Whereas, the half and half helps to thicken soups due to its high-fat content. However, to make potato soup gluten-free it can also be thickened by pureeing about a third of the soup with an immersion blender or mashing some of the potatoes with a potato masher. If you choose not to use any cream I suggest adding a bit of butter for flavor.

Is It Better to Thicken Soup With Flour Or Cornstarch?

In the culinary world, cornstarch is not the preferred method of thickening soups. But they both work, yet in different ways. In soups like this one, flour is better because we are forming a roux with the bacon fat and then adding stock. However, cornstarch can be used in place of the flour by mixing a little cornstarch with broth and then whisking it into the soup. But keep in mind that you only need half the amount of cornstarch to replace all-purpose flour. 

Storing Leftovers

Store leftover soup in airtight containers and refrigerate within two hours of cooking. It will last 3 to 4 days in the fridge or 4 to 6 months in the freezer.

Other Delicious Soup Recipes To Try

• Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Soup
• Avgolemono Soup
• Tomato Tortellini Soup
• Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
• Egg Drop Soup
• Sausage and Bean Soup
• Mulligatawny Soup