A friend of mine has been asking me to come up with a loaded potato soup for a long time now. Well here you go! I hope it meets everyone's expectations. I'm not a huge potato fan so I've never ordered this soup, or even made it until now. I read several recipes getting a general idea of how it's done then came up with my own.
3 large Russet potatoes
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
1 red or yellow Spanish onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup flour
s/p
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon smoked Paprika
1 pint lite cream
3 cups low sodium-fat free chicken stock
2 cups part-skim mozzarella or shredded cheese of your choice
Red pepper flakes (optional)
bay leaf
4 slices of thick center cut bacon (optional)
In a large stock pot heat up some olive oil. Once that's heated add in the onion, garlic, celery and carrot, a little s/p. Cook for about 5-8 minutes or until the vegetables start to become tender. Stir in the flour and cook another couple of minutes. While those are cooking, peel the potatoes reserving the peels. We are going to crisp them up later to top off our soup. Chop the potatoes into bite size pieces and throw those in, add in a little more s/p. Remember to season each layer as you go. Whisk in the cream, chicken stock, bay leaf, paprika and parsley. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer about 30 minutes or until potatoes are nice and tender. Take out the bay leaf. Pop everything into a blender and puree until nice and creamy. Return to the stove and slowly stir in the cheese, stirring until nice and melted. Serve w/crispy potato skins, or crumbled bacon, a little sour cream, the possibilities are endless.
For that potato skins. Make sure you scrubbed them real well before peeling. You can either fry them up, or toss them w/a little olive oil, salt and pepper and bake them off until crisp. 350 oven maybe 10 minutes or so. A toaster oven works well too. Enjoy!
*You can use whole milk or cream instead of light. Regular cheese and chicken stock. I just like to show "lighter" recipes on these great comfort dishes.
For the Monte Cristo Sandwich
4 slices of a good some what thick cut of bread
1 ham steak
4 slices of turkey (deli meat)
4 slices of your favorite cheese.
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
butter/olive oil
I heated my ham and turkey in a pan first.
Whisk the milk and eggs together in a shallow bowl/dish. Lay a piece of bread down, add 2 slices of cheese, 1/2 of the ham steak, 2 slices of turkey and then add on the other slice of bread. Dunk the entire sandwich (you can cut in half if you'd like) into the milk/egg wash. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter & olive oil in a skillet. Pop the sandwich in, cook on each side until a nice golden brown crust forms. Repeat for the second sandwich.
Copyright © 2012 Salvo-lutions by, Dana Salvo
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