Seeing these pretty potatoes at the Farmer’s Market and hearing the farmer himself sing their praises—he had many other varieties but said he particularly liked these—I had to buy some. He suggested turning them into pink mashed potatoes, which would be great, but I was eating alone, so making a big pot of mashed potatoes seemed frivolous. Instead, I remembered the potato soup my mom made when I was kid. It was one of my favorites and had a white milk-based broth that I thought would look great with the pinkness of the potatoes.
I called my mom for the recipe, and like most of my mom’s recipes, and a number of mine as well, it wasn’t so much a recipe as a list of steps and ingredients. She said to boil some water, add some onions, boil for a little while, add some potatoes, boil till the potatoes were cooked, dump out some liquid, and finally add evaporated milk, salt, pepper, and whatever other spices I wanted. I figured there must be a better way to go about it in order to create something truly flavorful, something that didn’t rely on the large quantities of butter as well celery, onion, and garlic powder we used to put in it when I was kid.
This is my first attempt at this recipe, and I’m sure I’ll add and change things next time around. I kept all of my mom’s basic ingredients, although I did seriously consider replacing the evaporated milk with cream and milk. My mom, however, was adamant that the evaporated milk was what made her soup special, and seeing as I had a can in the cabinet that was set to expire by the end of year, I decided to stick with her suggestion. I haven’t tried it with cream, but I am certain that the evaporated milk is the key to the taste I loved as a kid. I’m glad I kept it while managing to add more grown-up flavors as well.
Broth Ingredients
- 2 handfuls baby carrots sliced in ¼ inch rounds
- 2 stalks celery cut in 1 inch chunks
- 1 sliced round of large onion
- 1 sprig of organic rosemary
- approximately 6 cups water
Soup Ingredients
- 2 tblsp. butter
- 1 tblsp. olive oil
- 1 cup onion (I tend to use sweet onions always.)
- 3 large cloves garlic
- approximately 5 cups broth
- 1 ½-2 lbs. Adirondack Red potatoes (Obviously, use whatever kind makes you happy.)
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 can of evaporated milk
1. Put chopped carrots, celery, onion, and a sprig of rosemary in approximately 6 cups of water in a medium saucepan on high heat. Bring to a boil. Put a lid on the pan and lower the heat, making sure to maintain a simmer. I wouldn’t use a commercial broth as it will have too much salt and whatnot. Also, this isn’t really a proper broth so much as boiled veggie water, so feel free to add whatever you’ve got lying around. You can use any spices in lieu of or in addition to the rosemary. Next time, I’m thinking of putting in some thyme. Simmer for at least half an hour, but I did it for the time I was scrubbing and chopping the potatoes and cutting the onions and garlic. In the end, you'll have about 5 cups of broth.
2. Prepare and slice the potatoes. I scrubbed mine very well and left the skins on since that where a lot of the nutritional good stuff is, but if you don’t like skins, you can peel them. That’s what my mom does. After the potatoes are scrubbed or skinned, cut them into ¼ inch slices. If the slices are too wide, cut them in half. Next, chop up an onion until you have one cup. For me, that was less than half of a large onion. Remember you are going to be eating these, so make them a size you are comfortable chewing and swallowing. Finally, the garlic can be minced or put through a garlic press. I just got a new garlic press, which I used because I hate having fingers that smell like garlic for the rest of the day.
3. Over medium heat, melt the butter and add the olive oil. You can use more or less of either. Just make sure you have enough to sauté the onions and garlic. Add onions and cook for approximately 5 minutes, and then add the garlic. Cook for another two or three minutes.
4. While the garlic is cooking, strain the broth by placing a colander over a bowl. It is okay if some rosemary slips though, but make sure none of the veggies do. Once the broth has been strained, add it along with the potatoes, salt, pepper, and half of the rosemary to the onions and garlic. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to approximately medium and gently boil the potatoes. How long this takes with depend on the type of potatoes as well as how closely you stuck the ¼ inch slice guideline. Check after 10 or so minutes using a fork to see if they are done. They are done when a fork slides easily into a potato slice.
5. When the potatoes are done, remove at least 1 cup of broth from pot. I did this with a ladle. Reserve this broth to thin the soup later on if you think it has become too thick. Next add 1 can of evaporated milk to the soup along with the rest of the rosemary. Simmer gently for at least 10 more minutes, tasting to adjust salt and pepper levels. Once the spices are all good, eat and enjoy. It goes nicely with bread, and next time I have a bowl, I’m thinking of shredding a little gruyere over the top. Be creative and do something you like.
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