The Best Potato Soup Recipe Ever! Seriously, though... (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to soup? ›

Try adding a little more salt. That's usually the answer to any issue of blandness, no matter the recipe in question. A basic Appalachian style potato soup uses only a handful of simple ingredients, leaning on milk and water and often bouillon to create the brothy soup base.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute.

Use plenty of cream combined with milk, lots of cheddar cheese, garlic, ground black pepper, salt to taste, creamery butter and parsley. Don't forget the potatoes boiled than baked into the soup.

For clear, brothy soups, stock is your most important ingredient. If you want to make a good soup, you need to use an excellently flavored stock — otherwise, the entire pot could be tasteless.

ADD ACID

Fresh lemon juice: this is best to add at the end of cooking, otherwise the lemon flavor can become bitter. Cooking Vinegars: such as balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, or even apple cider vinegar. Hot sauce: helps to add both acid and heat, so you're getting even more bang for your buck.

Herbs and spices add aroma, flavor, and intensity to soup broth. "Use fresh or dried basil in tomato-based recipes or fresh parsley to add freshness to clear broth soups," says Sofia Norton, RD. You can also go with more heat and spices.

Adding umami-rich ingredients like tomato paste or a parmesan rind to the soup will add a deep, rich savoriness and body to the soup.

To thicken potato soup without creating lumps, you can use a roux made of equal parts butter and flour. Melt the butter in a separate pan, add the flour, and whisk until smooth. Slowly whisk the roux into the soup, and let it simmer until thickened.

What do restaurants use to thicken soup? ›

Corn Starch

This completely versatile starch is used in savory and sweet dishes alike: gelatinizing fruit pie fillings or thickening your hefty, stick-to-your-bones soups.

It's best to use fresh, firm potatoes. Acidic Ingredients: If your soup contained highly acidic ingredients (e.g., tomatoes), it could have affected the texture of the potatoes. Acidic ingredients can slow down the softening process of potatoes.

ANSWER: Waxy potatoes or those called boiling potatoes stand up well in soups and stews. These have thin skin and are high in moisture and low in starch. Potatoes that are low-starch and high-moisture hold together better. Yukon Gold potatoes are on the medium-starch side and will hold their shape in soups.

If you've ever tried potato leek soup and found it to have a gluey texture, it's because the potatoes released too much starch from being over handled. This is unfortunately easy to do with a food processor or blender (heck, it can even happen when making mashed potatoes, which is why I avoid using an electric mixer).

The document provides 5 basic principles of preparing soup: 1) Starting with cold water. 2) Cutting vegetables to an appropriate size. 3) Selecting a protein such as beef, chicken, pork, or fish. 4) Simmering the soup for 4 hours.

A soup's quality is determined by its flavor, appearance and texture. A good soup should be full-flavored, with no off or sour tastes. Flavors from each of the soup's ingre- dients should blend and complement, with no one flavor overpowering another.

Add lentils or rice

Blended lentils and rice can also add body to a soup. Red lentils work in tomato soups such as this recipe, and rice can be used in green soups or where a vegetable like cauliflower has been used. Cook them until they're tender, then blend them into the soup.