Not Just Potato Soup

In yet another attempt to usher fall into my house amid the 98-degree Southern Arizona atmosphere, I made a cool weather classic - potato soup. I'd like to say this was no ordinary potato soup by some masterful design, but that would be a lie. As usually happens in my kitchen, the dish just developed as it cooked.

It all started with a batch of potatoes beginning to sprout. (You know what I mean. It's the end of the 10 pound bag you bought on sale and just didn't use fast enough.) About a week ago I pulled the bag out of the pantry where one potato had gone bad (ewww!), rinsed off the rest, and put them in a basket on top of the fridge to get some air. As the week progressed, I noticed a tendril or two on the edge of the basket. When a few more days went by and the spuds seemed to be contemplating a hostile take over of the door handle, I knew I had to act quickly. Luckily, potatoes clean up well once they're peeled, so I had plenty of fine white starch to work with. In addition, I had one lonely sweet potato that was reaching out to its neighbors, so it went into the pot as well.

Once the potatoes were cubed, covered with chicken stock, and set on the heat, I began digging through the vegetable drawer to see what else I could add. Some chopped garlic, diced onion, and baby carrots went into the pot along with a healthy dose of black pepper and some sea salt. Once everything came to a boil, I clamped the lid on top and turned down the stove to allow everything to simmer until tender (about 25 minutes).

At this point, several options presented themselves. A hand masher can be used to create some texture while breaking up the actual pieces of vegetable. Another option is to drain about half the liquid and use an electric mixer to combine everything before adding the liquid back or stirring in some milk (or cream) instead. Still another option is to put half the soup in a blender or food processor and then return it to the pot creating a combination of thick and chunky textures. Finally, the entire pot of goodies can be put into the blender to make a creamy soup with all the flavors evenly distributed. This happened to be the path I took today.

The result was a beautiful orange color (from the sweet potato and carrots), and a thick, satisfying texture that made a bowl of soup seem more like a hearty meal. Ultimately, of course, it's the taste that counts. I found this combination of veggies much more interesting than ordinary potato soup, and the guys liked it, too. In the future, I'm sure I'll be adding a wider variety of vegetables to my stand-by potato soup, but I'm contemplating a further change in methodology. I'm guessing the soup would be even better if I roasted the vegetables instead of boiling them. They could then be pureed and added to hot stock or a cream base to make the final dish. Perhaps when the weather actually turns to fall, that will be on the menu.