Homemade Cheesy Potato Soup

This is one of my favorite fall back recipes. I know no matter how broke or short on time I am, I can toss together this cheesy potato soup and have a delicious and filling soup. It's warm and good especially during the winter, plus, it's so yummy!

I absolutely adore crock pots and so have several which I use whenever I want to cook something and not have to worry about it. This crock pot would be great for making my potato soup.

Simply cook bacon and onions, then toss all other ingredients, except cheese, sour cream, and bacon, into the crock pot. Cook for about 4-6 hours on low, and then just add topper ingredients right before serving. Simply delicious.

You need:

Primary Ingredients-

2 Onions

6-8 Medium Potatoes

Instant Mashed Potatoes, still dehydrated

Bouillon, Chicken or Vegetable

Dry Milk

Butter

Seasoning-

Italian Seasoning

Dash Sesame Oil

Salt

Pepper

Toppers-

Sour Cream

Shredded Cheese

Bacon

Some of the ingredients I use in this potato soup and in many of my recipes. They're always in my cupboard since I like to have them on hand.

Fry a few slices of bacon in the soup pot, then remove to a paper towel-covered plate to drain. When cooled a little, crumble it and set aside. Of course if you're a vegetarian just skip this step and use some oil for the next step.

Slice the two onions. I like to slice the onions into thin slices then cut those in half since I don't like chunky pieces of onion.

Garlic is one of my favorite ingredients, so usually I have a jar of minced garlic in my fridge, ready for use and just scoop in a glob of it into whatever I'm cooking. If you don't have that, just clean off a garlic clove or two (or three if you really like garlic) and minced it finely or put it through a garlic press.

Toss the onions and garlic into the still hot bacon grease and saute until caramelized. Remove from pan into another dish.

Scrub the 6-8 potatoes clean, and if you don't like peels on them, peel off the skin. I used more in this picture since the potatoes were really small.

Cut the potatoes into small cubes of about the same size. The smaller the cubes, the faster the potatoes cook.

Drain off any leftover bacon grease from the pot. Add potatoes to the soup pot.

My dutch oven cooking pot isn't this pretty blue, though I wish it were. It's the handiest cooking pot I have though. It goes from sauteing to boiling to cooking a roast in the oven, and since I hate having to use and clean multiple pots, it's the one I use most of all. I'd love to have this blue one though!

To the soup pot with the potatoes, add enough water to fill the pot most of the way up and whatever amount of your chicken bouillon to make the water taste broth-y, usually a few tablespoons. Stir until bouillon is completely dissolved. You can use broth instead of the water and bouillon if you have that instead. Vegetarians feel free to use veggie broth or bouillon.

Cook the potatoes at medium-high heat until soft, about 15 minutes.

When the cooked potatoes get soft, slowly sprinkle in some dry milk and instant mashed potatoes, constantly stirring to incorporate.

Don't tell anyone, but this is the secret to a great textured and creamy soup without a lot of extra work.

After stirring in the dry milk and instant mashed potatoes, check to make sure the soup is nearly creamy enough. If soup is still too thin slowly add more dry milk and instant potatoes until the soup reaches almost the desired thickness. Soup will thicken a bit more as it cooks. If you add too much you can thin the soup with a bit of broth or water.

Add a big glob of butter to the soup, about 1/2 of a stick to a stick depending on your family's taste. Let butter melt a little.

Presentation is a huge part of any meal, so serve your soup in a dish that looks lovely.

Sprinkle in about 1 1/2 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning, a teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of pepper. Taste the soup and add more seasoning if necessary. sometimes I like a bit of Lemon Pepper in there too. If you're using toasted sesame oil go ahead and add a dash here. The slightly nutty flavor of sesame oil adds a bit to the soup, but some people aren't fond of the flavor, so see what you think.

Using a potato masher, mash the mixture just a little so that about half the potatoes are mushed a little, but the soup is still nice and chunky. This is optional, but helps make the soup a nicer texture and add more potato-ness to each bite.

When making this batch of potato soup, I had some leftover sausage from a cheese plate, so chopped them a little finer and tossed them in. This is a perfect point to stir in any extra ingredients you may have as leftovers in your fridge.

This is a great soup around the holidays because you can easily use up leftovers with it. Leftover mashed potatoes can be used in place of some or all of the cubed potatoes, and you can easily dice up bell peppers and broccoli from vegetable plates. Leftover cheese and sausage plates can be chopped and added to the soup. It's also great with some cubed ham or turkey. Just about anything works. Even serving with a side of cranberry sauce.

Lower heat and let simmer for a while until flavors are blended, about 15 minutes or so.

Add 1/2 cubed or shredded cheese to the soup and stir it in. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

This soup only gets better as it sits, so take a bowl with you to work or send some to school with your kids for a wholesome, filling lunch.

Now dish up the hot and creamy soup into individual bowls and top each with a bit more cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and some crumbled bacon. Serve.

Leave a comment and let me know if you've tried my soup or are going to. Thanks for visiting!