It’s the middle of summer, a miserably hot Utah day, and I decided I would whip up a pot of potato soup. Because nothing says hot summer like hot soup. I wound up being quite proud of this particular pot of soup. My husband and kids enjoyed it in spite of the heat. I added a little bit of spice to it to keep it interesting and sort of summery. Perhaps it is best reserved for colder months.

My first plan was to do the whole thing in the crock pot. But I didn’t have evaporated milk, so I did a big chuck of it in the crock pot. So it’s not purely a slow cooker meal, but it gets a lot done.

As far as the potato and yam comparison go, I’m telling what I used, but your aim should be roughly equal potatoes and yams.

1 yam

2 medium yellow potatoes

2 medium red potatoes

1 onion

3 celery stalks

3 strips of bacon

1 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning (or a red pepper type thing as you prefer)

Half a stick of butter

2 cans of chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup of whole milk

3 tbsp flour

2 tbsp of balsamic glace or 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Siracha to taste

Salt and pepper

Cheese, more bacon, sour cream, all that

 

Chop the potatoes and yam and place in the slow cooker. Add the butter and the broth.

Fry up the bacon and use the bacon grease to cook the onions. Save the leftover bacon grease for later. Add those to the crockpot with the Old Bay and some salt and pepper (be generous with that seasoning). Cook on high for 4 hours/low for 8 hours. Basically until the potatoes and yam are nice and soft.

When that slow cooker stuff is pretty much done, use about 3 tbsp of bacon grease (or butter, but bacon!) and the flour to make a roux. This mean, get the fat nice and hot, toss in the flour, and mix it for about 3-5 minutes. Add the milk and keep whisking here and there until a nice cream appears. Now, add more salt and pepper and a healthy squirt or two of siracha.

Now, you can either transfer the contents of the slow cooker to another pot or use the slow cooker, whichever. I like a creamy potato soup, so I mashed my potatoes up a bit at this point. Probably not necessary. Anywho, add the cream sauce to the potatoes and mix it in. Add the balsamic glace or vinegar and stir that in.

Serve with your delightful toppings of choice.