Category — Soup

I made this crock pot corn chowder recipe yesterday.  It’s very savory; after a day in the crock pot, you can really taste all the flavors in this stuff!  It’s sort of a hybrid recipe- I read through several corn chowder recipes, and morphed them into one.  This easily makes enough to serve 4.

Crockpot Corn Chowder

• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 slices bacon
• 20 oz. frozen whole kernel corn
• 1/2 cup carrots, finely diced
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 1 cup of water
• 2 cups potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 tsp.  Worcesterchire sauce
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• Pinch of garlic powder

Coarsely chop bacon, and fry in a large skillet until crisp.  Remove bacon from skillet, and set aside.  In bacon drippings, saute onion and potato for 3-4 minutes.  Discard bacon drippings.  Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.  Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce temperature to low for 3-5 hours.

In the last hour of cooking time, scoop half of chowder into a blender, and pulse until smooth.  (Careful-very HOT!)  Place blended mixture back into crock pot, and stir.

Optional:  Just before serving, stir in a little butter, and about 1/2 cup of half and half.

Whenever I get the chance, I like to go to a local diner for a bowl of their loaded baked potato soup.  Occasionally, I even make my own, which I think comes in pretty close to the diner’s recipe. Some people use flour or cornstarch to thicken their potato soup, but I like to sprinkle in some instant mashed potato flakes for thickening it up when needed.

This is a very rich soup, so….uh make it when you’re not dieting.  Everybody has to splurge once in awhile, right?

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

• 2/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup flour
• 4 cups cubed, baked potatoes, peeled
• 8 cups milk
• 1/2 cup thin sliced green onions
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup of sour cream
• Several slices of bacon, cooked, drained, coarsely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large soup pot or Dutch oven, then little by little stir in flour until smooth.  Gradually add milk and stir over low to medium heat until thickened.  When mixture has thickened, add potatoes and green onions, and continue to cook until soup just reaches a very gentle boil.  Add remaining ingredients and serve hot!

There are a million ways to make this soup.  Here are lots more potato soup recipes.

There are lots of ways to use up Halloween pumpkins, and here is one delicious option. This pumpkin soup recipe includes cinnamon croutons for topping.  You can even get creative with the croutons for making this a real Halloween treat.