{"id":16896,"date":"2014-01-13T00:50:24","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T05:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=16896"},"modified":"2014-01-13T00:51:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T05:51:55","slug":"baked-potato-soup-load","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/13\/baked-potato-soup-load\/","title":{"rendered":"Baked Potato Soup &#8211; Load It Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yum! \u00a0Do you enjoy a baked potato with all the fixin\u2019s? \u00a0I must admit I do! \u00a0What is your favorite topping? \u00a0Mine is bacon. And even choosing just what to put on top&#8230;when my husband gets done \u201cloading\u201d his potato, it is a masterpiece (and he enjoys every bite)! \u00a0But we&#8217;ve learned a few things about the balancing act with carbs&#8230;and so, a loaded baked potato finds it&#8217;s way onto my plate once in a blue moon. \u00a0However, this soup&#8230;now this i can enjoy perhaps every full moon!<\/p>\n<p>A friend had asked me for a recipe for this soup. (I had never even heard of \u2018Baked Potato Soup!\u2019) \u00a0 You can only imagine the variety of recipes to be found out on the internet! \u00a0Well, you can easily guess just what they were \u201cloaded\u201d with&#8212;many more calories than I desire to serve to my husband and guests (and me)! \u00a0 And we surely couldn&#8217;t include a recipe like most of those I saw on our Monday post on the <strong>At Home w\/ GCH<\/strong> blog!<\/p>\n<p>So here is how I made our <strong><em>healthy-but-oh-so-yummy<\/em><\/strong> version&#8212;this recipe includes <em>cauliflower<\/em>. Using cauliflower as a main ingredient does a number of things in a healthy and yummy way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>provides our bodies with <strong>more<\/strong> veggies<\/li>\n<li>and for those of you trying to <strong>sneak veggies<\/strong> into your family\u2019s repertoire&#8230;perfect!<\/li>\n<li>keeps the carb count down (approximately the same # of carbs in an<strong> entire<\/strong> head of cauliflower as in <strong>one<\/strong> russet potato)<\/li>\n<li>bulks up the soup so it is thick and creamy <strong>without<\/strong> exhorbitant quantities of heavy cream and cheese (lots of fat and calories)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I encourage you to try this soup&#8230;it is a very satisfying comfort food but is light on the carbs and the fat calories. \u00a0A nice treat! \u00a0Enjoy!<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Loaded Baked Potato Soup<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_3888\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/2012-11-09-19-11-15.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3888\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3888\" alt=\"Healthy but oh-so-yummy Loaded Baked Potato Soup\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/2012-11-09-19-11-15-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/2012-11-09-19-11-15-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/2012-11-09-19-11-15.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3888\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Healthy but oh-so-yummy Loaded Baked Potato Soup<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ingredients<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>soup<\/strong>:<br \/>\n2 medium-sized russet* potatoes, washed and dried<br \/>\n1 head of cauliflower, rough chopped<br \/>\n1+1\/2 cups chicken, or vegetable, broth<br \/>\n1+1\/2 cups 2% milk (warmed)<br \/>\nsalt and freshly ground black pepper<br \/>\n<strong>toppings<\/strong>:<br \/>\n2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (you can use turkey bacon if you wish)<br \/>\n1\/2 cup light sour cream<br \/>\n1 cup shredded very sharp cheddar cheese<br \/>\ndried parsley<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Directions<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First get the baked potatoes going. After scrubbing them, pierce potatoes with a fork in 4 or 5 places. I prepared mine in the microwave oven (on high for 5 minutes; turn over and cook another 3-5 minutes, until tender). Or, you can bake them at 400\u00b0 for approximately 1 hour or until tender. Either way, when potatoes are done, cool for 10-15 minutes. Then they can be peeled and chopped. This recipe is also a great way to use up leftover baked potatoes!<\/li>\n<li>While the potatoes are cooking and cooling, you can prepare the other main ingredients.\u00a0Here\u2019s how I cook bacon: I stack the slices and, using kitchen scissors, I cut it into approximately 1+1\/2&#8243; to 2&#8243; pieces. I find that the bacon cooks much more quickly and evenly this way. Place the pieces into a COLD small frying pan, heat over medium heat. Once the bacon starts frying, I reduce the heat a bit and cook to the desired degree of doneness, keeping a careful eye so that it does not burn. I like to cook bacon over a medium low heat so that most of the fat is rendered out. Using a slotted spoon or spatula, remove the bacon, leaving the drippings, and place onto a couple of paper towels to finish draining. Set aside for topping the soup.<\/li>\n<li>Now while the bacon is cooking, place the cut-up cauliflower into a medium-sized pot along with the broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, then cover and simmer \u2018til tender. <strong>Do not drain<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Once cauliflower is cooked, add warmed milk and the chopped baked potatoes to the pot, and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and gently simmer \u2018til thoroughly heated, stirring once or twice; this will take just a couple of minutes. Remove pot from heat and scoop out about 1\/3 of the veggies; set aside.<\/li>\n<li>Now you are going to puree (smooth out) the soup. I use an immersion or stick blender** to puree. Other options would be to use a potato masher, or to puree the soup in your blender. You must be very careful doing it this way because it is hot! See below for tips (just \u2018cause God loves you&#8230;we don\u2019t want to see you get hurt!). Once pureed, place pot back on very low heat, add back in the reserved veggies, the sour cream, half the parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. heat on very low \u2018til nice and hot, stirring occasionally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now to \u201c<strong>load<\/strong>\u201d your potato soup! \u00a0Ladle soup into each bowl. \u00a0Top each serving with 2 tablespoons of shredded cheese, a sprinkle of the remaining parsley, and some of the crumbled bacon. <strong><em>Healthy but-oh-so-yummy!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #a74bb3;\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2665\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>God loves you!<span style=\"color: #a74bb3;\"> \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 <\/span>(Don&#8217;t<strong> ever<\/strong> forget that!)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #a74bb3;\">\u2665 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Coleen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yum! \u00a0Do you enjoy a baked potato with all the fixin\u2019s? \u00a0I must admit I do! \u00a0What is your favorite topping? \u00a0Mine is bacon. And even choosing just what to put on top&#8230;when my husband gets done \u201cloading\u201d his potato, it is a masterpiece (and he enjoys every bite)! \u00a0But we&#8217;ve learned a few things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[3038,115,235,425,483,615,5057,981,982],"class_list":["post-16896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home-with-gch","tag-at-home-w-gch","tag-baked-potato-soup","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-healthy-but-oh-so-yummy","tag-loaded-baked-potato-soup","tag-russets","tag-soup","tag-soup-recipes","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4ow","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16899,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896\/revisions\/16899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}