My Wednesday Pantry-Helen Soup

     

Do you ever assign recipes by people? Sunday I made a delicious potato cheese soup, recipe compliments of an old colleague named Helen. I first made this fall 1993, and my then preschoolers devoured it. It's been a staple  for nearly 30 years. It's easy to remember the recipe too, just remember 1&4, but of course, tweak as you prefer. The original recipe is:

• 1 C diced carrots
• 4 C diced potatoes
• 4 C broth
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

     Cook carrots, potatoes, salt, pepper in broth until soft. Remove 1/2 and either blend that portion, or use an immersion blender to the 1/2 left in pot. Combine purred with non- pureed, add cheese. Stir and serve when cheese is melted. Makes about 7 cups of soup.

    My tweaks:  I get lazy rustic with my dicing of carrots and potatoes,  include a diced onion and couple stalks of celery now. I tend to use water and buillion for broth, so I'll use one cup milk instead of all water to make a creamier soup. I'll also mix up the cheese to whatever I have, not limiting to just cheddar. I'm sure I've shared this before, but since fresh in my menu this week, repeating.

     I brought a jar to my sister, heated her up a bowl last night for her supper. She said it was the first food she's had in a week with any flavor. Needless to say, her appetite is light, so she'll get several more bowls from the jar. She was happy to be home. I visited with her as long as I could, but admittedly, needed to leave to get a Benadryl in me. We've got a schedule of help and care for her, and she's under the watchful eye of kitty-kitty, the stray that adopted her 10 years ago. As for the soup, it's the time of year where potatoes in storage might be getting soft. It's a good use them up recipe.