Dirty Baked Potato Soup

dirty baked potato soup
{ quick + healthy dinner }

No joke, we’ve made this four times in the past week. Yes, it’s in the healthy-sphere of cooking, and in spite of that fact we can’t stop shoving it in our faces because it is so completely delicious.

I like to think I eat just like you. During the week, I try to eat on the healthy side of things: oatmeal or eggs for breakfast, leftovers for lunch and some type of grilled or roasted protein with greens for dinner.

During the weekend, I’m all waffles, fried chicken and martinis. Truth. January is one of those months that tends to be a healthy dose of mid-week eating all month long. But I can never, ever, give up deliciousness. You eat like this too, right?

So, this brings us to this dirty baked potato soup. I was inspired by the Baked Potato Soup in the SkinnyTaste cookbook.

When it gets the slightest bit chilly, I want something warm and comforting and this looked like all of that. I made the recipe as prescribed and it was good, but I wanted to give it some jazz hands.

I wanted to keep the skin on the potatoes so that we could get some more vitamins and fiber in there and I reduced the milk because dairy isn’t always my friend. We’ve doubled-up on the cauliflower and sautéed onions in a little bit of bacon grease (holla) to add some nice smokiness to the soup.

Umm, what else? Oh, I’m not a huge fan of reduced fat anything. So I replaced the reduced fat sour cream with 2% Greek yogurt and the reduced fat cheese with extra sharp cheddar cheese to really amp up the flavor.

Let’s make this baked potato soup. I swear, once won’t be enough. It’s completely addictive.

Dirty Baked Potato Soup

A really delicious, cozy soup loaded with potatoes, cheddar and chives. It's made healthy-ish with the addition of cauliflower and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Enjoy! xx

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Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Soup

Keyword: Baked Potato, Soup, Cheddar, Dinner, Healthy-ish

Servings: 6 Servings

Author: Rebecca Firth

Ingredients

• 3 pieces of bacon
• 1 medium yellow onion (coarsely chopped)
• 2 small heads of cauliflower (or 1 large, stems removed and each chopped into 6-8 chunks)
• 2 russet potatoes (scrubbed clean and skin on, thinly sliced)
• 32 ounces chicken stock
• 1/2 cup nonfat milk
• ½ cup plain 2% Greek yogurt
• 4 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese (shredded and separated into 3 and 1 ounce)
• Salt and pepper (at least a teaspoon of each)
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ cup chopped chives (1/4 cup goes into the soup, the other 1/4 cup used as garnish)

Instructions

• Cut the bacon into thin strips (I like to use scissors and cut directly into the pan), and then place in a large dutch oven and sauté over medium heat until nice and crispy.
• While the bacon’s cooking, chop your onions. Once the bacon is crispy and done, set it on paper towels to drain. Set aside. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of bacon grease from the pot.
• Add the onions and sauté over medium heat until softened. Stir periodically to make sure they don’t burn and scrape the bottom of the pot to release any yummy flavor bits leftover by the bacon. This should take about 5ish minutes. While the onions are cooking, chop your cauliflower and potatoes.
• Add the stock to the pot, scraping the bottom of the pan to release any brown bits. Then add the cauliflower and then the potatoes. You’ll want to do it in this order so that the potatoes are more steamed than sitting in the broth.
• Cover the pot, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a medium simmer for about 5-10 minutes or until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.
• Once you can pierce them easily with a fork, turn the heat off and it’s time to blend the soup together. Before we move into technique I want you to remember one very important thing: DO NOT OVER BLEND OR MASH!!! Your soup will sadly turn into glue. Here’s how I like to do it…I use my hand-held immersion blender and blend until everything is pretty smooth.

  My daughter likes the soup really smooth, so I give it a very quick (BRIEF!) spin in the Vitamix. If you do this latter bit I can’t stress enough the importance of doing less rather than more blending. One last note on blending…if you don't have the immersion blender or a high-speed blender, you can mash it as you would mashed potatoes. Just note it won't be as smooth, but it will still be delicious. If for any reason you think that it has become a bit on the glue side of things, add a little more broth  (maybe 1/4 cup) and that should correct things.
• Put the soup back in the dutch oven and onto the stove over low heat…just enough to keep it warm. Add the ½ cup each of milk and Greek yogurt, stirring to blend. Grate 3 ounces of the cheese into the soup and stir to melt.
• Add the 1 teaspoon of paprika and taste. Where is it at flavor-wise? Now it’s time to add our salt and pepper. True life confession…I add a generous 1 teaspoon of sea salt to this. I’m equally generous with the cracked pepper. Taste again. How are we doing? Stir in ¼ cup of chopped chives to the soup.
• You’re ready to eat. That was easy, right? Your bowl will need about 1 ½ cups of soup, a sprinkling of 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese, 2 teaspoons-ish of chives and a healthy dusting of bacon. Now go snuggle on the couch by the fire.

Thanks for baking with me! Please rate + comment this recipe and tag me on social @displacedhousewife #displacedhousewife so I can see your beautiful treats! xo