Mom's Potato Cheese Soup

This is a hearty and filling soup. You can use any type of potato you like, and it’s a great recipe to use any leftover baked potatoes! Serve with salad and bread and you have a great winter meal!

ingredients

1/2 cup butter
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pound bacon, cooked and broken into pieces
5 pounds potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
24 oz. sharp cheddar cheese (or your favorite)
16 - 32 oz. milk (depending on how “milky” you like your soup)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

directions

1
In a large soup kettle, boil potatoes until they are just “fork soft”. Drain and save water.
2
While potatoes are cooking, melt butter and saute onions. Add garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. I don’t like to bite into onions (it’s a texture thing!) so I puree the onions & garlic with some milk and save to pour back into soup kettle.
3
After potatoes have been drained, put potatoes and 1 cup milk into the soup pot. Add onion/garlic mixture & stir together.
4
Pour a bit of milk into the blender and add a couple cups of the cooked potatoes. Blend and add back to the soup. You can do this again, depending on how many chunky pieces of potato you would like in your soup.
5
To soup pot, add salt, pepper, cheese, and bacon. Stir together on low heat, adding milk and/or potato water slowly until you have the consistency you want. Adding potato water makes your soup “less milky”. For a richer flavor (and a few more calories!) add cream or sour cream (I don’t do this as I feel the soup has a great flavor just using milk).
6
Heat until cheese is melted, milk is heated through, and soup is the consistency you like.