Autumn Recipe-Potato Ham Soup

Autumn is quickly approaching and with Fall in the air, I have been starting to crave a hot bowl of soup.  I don’t have a lot of from scratch soup recipes, so I decided this year I am inspired to try some out to add to my recipe book!  What I like about soup is that it’s usually fun and easy to prepare, you can put it in a crock pot to have later.  Plus- usually soup is a healthy,balanced meal complete with veggies and protein. The first new soup recipe I made to (prematurely) kick off Fall (Hey it did drop down to the 50’s tonight!) is for a hearty-

Potato Ham Soup! 

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized potatoes, peeled & cut into small cubes
• 2 cups water
• 1 small onion
• 3-4 TB of butter
• 3-4 TB of flour
• crushed red pepper flakes
• black pepper (I grind mine from a pepper mill)
• salt
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup smoked ham-cubed or cut in pieces
• 2 TB real bacon bits or 2 strips of cooked smoked bacon, crumbled (bacon is optional, but I did use bacon in mine)
• Dried Parsley for garnish
• Optional-oyster crackers or cheddar gold fish crackers for garnish

 

Directions:  Cover the potatoes with the 2 cups water in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Cook potatoes until tender,but you don’t want them to fall apart, so don’t overcook.  Drain the potatoes, reserving the liquid and set the potatoes aside.  Pour reserved liquid in to a 1 cup measuring cup, and add water if necessary to equal 1 cup of liquid; set aside.

 

Peel & finely chop the onion.  Melt butter in your pot over a medium heat.  Add onion and saute , stirring frequently until the onion turns translucent but is not brown.  Add flour to pan.  Now add your seasonings to taste.  I added a few hand cranks of black pepper, and a couple of dashes of the red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt.  The Crushed Red Pepper flakes will add some “heat” to your soup, so depending on how spicy you want it , use less or more of those.  As an alternative to these 3 spices, you could use Mrs. Dash original seasoning for a different flavor.  Cook this mixture for about 3 min.

 

Gradually add potatoes, reserved 1 cup cooking liquid, milk, and sugar to onion mixture in your pot.  Stir well.  Add cheese, ham and bacon.  Simmer over a low heat for 30 min, stirring frequently.

 

Pour soup into bowls and garnish with dried parsley flakes and/or oyster or goldfish crackers.  Makes about 6 bowls.

 

I thought it was really good and if your guy is anything like mine, they will love the hearty addition of the meat to it.  The smoked flavor of the ham & bacon tastes like Autumn to me!

If you want a sandwich to go with this soup, how about one of the grilled cheese ideas from a previous article Click here: “Cooking with Cast Iron & Creative Grilled Cheese Ideas” .  Don’t forget to use a cast iron skillet if you make grilled cheese; I swear it makes a difference!

 

 

 

Linked @ Skip to my lou, Creative Mondays, Shaken together, MercyInk, Far Above Rubies, Thankful Homemaker & Time Warp Wife, Women Living Well