Loaded Baked Potato Soup

 

This soup was so hearty and creamy and warm and comforting and delicious......yummmm.

Potatoes have become a weekly staple for me, while eating gluten-free....which means you can get awfully tired of potatoes - if you don't look for new ways to prepare them. This soup was really easy, and so good.

Luke had a "guys night" and I made the boys potato skins - I baked 6 small baking potatoes, halved them and scooped out most of the middle, leaving just a little in the skins. I saved all the potato I scooped out and refrigerated it for this soup. 

You could also prepare the potatoes the same day as the soup, baking potatoes just takes some time - so be prepared for this recipe to take a lot longer. You could also cube some potatoes and boil them until tender, drain and use those in the soup.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound of bacon,

2 to 3 cups of cubed, roughly cut up potatoes (cooked)

1/2 white onion, diced

10 stalks green onions, diced, divided into 2 bowls

3 cups half and half

s/p

2 cups grated cheese (I used a colby jack mix) plus more for topping.

Directions:

In a large stockpot, fry the bacon until brown and crispy. Remove the bacon strips and crumble, leaving the drippings in the pot. Cook the onions (all the diced white onion and half of your green onions) in the bacon drippings until they are tender. Stir in the potatoes. At this point, I used a mashed to push some of the onion and bacon grease into the potatoes, I think this really blended the flavors well.  Stir in the half and half and salt and pepper. Slowly stir in the cheese until melted. Add half of your crumbled bacon to the pot, reserving the rest for topping. Make sure soup is heated all the way through.

Serve with green onion, bacon and shredded cheese.