Fall is officially here.The trees are just starting to change colors, but the weather has taken a much needed dip.
This morning is cool and welcoming, but reminds me to bring a sweater. Cool drips of rain dot my face, as the mountain air refreshes my whole being with each inhale. Fog blankets the neighboring mountain ridge, only leaving a blue hue at the bottom. The smell of wet firewood brings back memories of last year’s autumn adventures, as a small rush of excitement runs through my veins.
Today is calling for a warm welcome to this beautiful season. Today, I welcome fall with this lovely rustic potato soup recipe. This creamy yet textured soup has notes of rosemary, enveloped with homemade broth, topped with crisp bacon and fresh chives.
Method: Gather supplies and ingredients. Begin with a large cast iron skillet and your cherrywood bacon. I love the hint of cherrywood smoke in the bacon for this recipe. I feel like it adds another component to the rustic style of this dish.
Place 6 strips of bacon into the cold cast iron skillet. Set burner to medium temperature. Flip the bacon several times throughout cooking until the bacon fat is rendered, and has a crispy texture, and medium brown color.
When the bacon is ready, move it from the pan and place it on a paper towel so the grease will drain off.
Pour the grease into a heat-safe container. I used a small mason jar. Save the grease for now, as we will use some of it to saute our veggies in a minute.
Open the jars of chicken broth and pour them into the stock pot. Turn the burner to medium heat so the broth can start getting warm. It will take a minute to prep the veggies, so I don’t want to go straight to a rolling boil right away. However, when we’re ready to increase the temperature, we’ll be able to quickly adjust.
While the bacon is cooking. Prepare the vegetables.
Peel your carrot and slice it into thin slices. This is mostly to add a tiny splash of color in our rustic potato soup, and just the smallest hint of organic sweetness. It also compliments the homemade chicken broth.
Wash and chop your celery stick. Again, this is not so much for flavor, but just to add to that rustic component, and compliment the earthy ingredients.
Peel and dice your onion. Normally I use one large onion, however, today I had two small ones. It’s ok to make adjustments depending on what you have on hand.
Peel, rinse and chop the potatoes to about .5′ cubes. The most important thing is that the size of the potato pieces are all about the same. If you have a huge piece, and a tiny piece, you’ll get kicked off of Master Chef…..aka, the tiny piece will cook way faster than the huge one. It’s best to keep things as uniform as possible, but don’t worry about being perfect…. Hence the name “rustic” potato soup.
I think the word rustic means forgivable. lol It’s an adjective that describes things that may not look pristine, but are still full of greatness in one way or another…. and a lot of times it has something to do with the mountains, country, rough edges, texture, etc, and I love that too. 😛
Finally. finely chop the rosemary. lol No one wants a huge piece of stiff rosemary in their creamy soup. The best thing would probably make a rosemary infusion, but I’m just going to chop it.
Now toss the rosemary and the chopped potatoes into the stock pot and raise the temperature to medium-high. Bring to a boil until potatoes are cooked all the way through.
Using the cast iron skillet that the bacon was cooked in, add the chopped onion, carrot and celery and cook on medium heat.
The onions will start to turn a golden brown color, and the carrots will be soft (since they are thin).
If the veggies are sticking to the pan before they’re finished sauteing, add a little more bacon grease until they are.
Once everything is sauteed, add one ladle of chicken broth from the stock pot, and allow the skillet to de-glaze. The broth will boil immediately, and allow all the flavor that stuck to the pan, to release so we can add it to our soup. Yum!
Add the de-glazed mixture to the pot. Stir. Then taste what you’ve got so far.
You may need to add salt and pepper, and possibly more rosemary. It’s up to you.
While the potatoes are cooking, coarsely chop the bacon and chives separately, and set aside to use as a garnish.
I also chopped a little extra chives so I could add to the pot of soup after the potatoes were finished cooking.
Once the potatoes are nice and soft, reduce heat to medium. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes into smaller pieces. We want “rustic” potato lumps. (lol The sound of that.)
Once the soup cools a tiny bit, throw the block of cream cheese into the pot and mash it with the potato masher too.
NEVER add milk, cream, or cheese, to a liquid that is already hot!!! It will curdle and totally ruin your dish, and your whole night! (Trust me, I’ve learned the hard way…a few times. Boo!)
However, for some reason, cream cheese is fine at “previously boiled, then cooled to medium” temperature.
Just mash it with the potato masher, and stir it until all the cream cheese is dissolved.
This is the magic moment I add those extra chives to the pot. I love the way fresh herbs look inside a pot of homemade soup! And then the flavor just gives that little bit of extra freshness. Sooo good!
Now for the fun part!
Serve this amazing rustic potato soup topped with crispy bacon and fresh chives in an awesome soup bowl from Japan!! Just kidding, serve it in whatever awesome bowl you have.
But you need a flower! Or you can just borrow mine. lol
In all seriousness though, this soup screams for a sourdough bread bowl! You could have a side of grilled cheese, or a small salad with roasted pecans. Or just eat it plain like my family did. lol
I do have to say though, this soup has done an excellent job welcoming this new autumn season on this lovely fresh drizzly day.
Rustic Potato Soup with Bacon and Chives
Equipment
- 1 Cast Iron Skillet or other pan
- 1 Small stock pot
- 1 Sharp knife
- 1 cutting board
- 1 potato masher
- 1 ladle
Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon cherry smoked, cooked. Save grease
- 1 Carrot peeled and finely sliced
- 1 med-large onion or 2 small onions
- 1 Celery stick finely chopped
- 5-7 red potatoes peeled, chopped
- 1 tbsp rosemary finely chopped. Add more according to personal preference.
- 5-7 sprigs chives chopped fresh is best, but dried is ok (season to taste)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 8 oz cream cheese
- 3 pints chicken broth homemade is preferred, canned is ok, water will do but extra seasoning will be needed
Instructions
1. Bacon
- Place bacon in cold cast iron skillet. Turn burner to medium. Turn several times. Cook bacon until crisp.
2. Soup Pot
- Open and empty jars of chicken broth into stock pot. Turn onto medium heat to allow warming up.
3. Veggies
- While bacon is cooking, and broth is getting warm...Peel and dice onion.Peel and finely slice carrot.Rinse and finely chop celery.Peel, rinse and chop potatoes. Finely chop rosemary.
- When bacon is crisp, remove it from pan. Place on paper towels to allow grease to drip off. Drain grease from pan into another container (not plastic), such as a mason jar, or small metal bowl (something that can withstand hot bacon grease).
- Using the same cast iron skillet the bacon was cooked in, saute the onions, carrot and celery, still on medium heat. Add spoonfuls of bacon grease as needed.
Combine
- Add rosemary and potatoes to warm stock pot. Increase temperature to medium/high.Ladle some broth into the cast iron skillet to de-glaze the pan, allowing all the flavors to release from the bottom of the pan. Pour the sauteed veggies and de-glazed mixture into the stock pot with the potatoes and broth. Taste the broth at this point and add salt, pepper, and/or more rosemary if needed. Boil potatoes until soft. Stir occasionally.
- When potatoes are cooking, chop the cooked bacon and chives. Set aside in separate dishes to garnish later.
- When potatoes are fully cooked, reduce temperature back to medium. Use a potato masher to coarsely mash the potatoes. Add the cream cheese to the soup, and use the potato masher to cut it into small pieces. Stir until the cream cheese is completely dissolved. Add about 2 tbs of chopped chives.Taste soup again, to see if any other seasonings are needed.
Serve
- Serve this soup with crispy chopped bacon and fresh chives on top. Other ways to serve: Cheese is another popular topping. This soup would be great inside a nice sourdough bread bowl.
