Annie Belle's Hearty Potato Soup

Wellll (as Granny would say with a sweet smile as she replies to you because she has no idea what you just said so she just says "well" really sweetly), it is officially soup season, and 2bit couldn't be more happy about it. So, we have yet another soup for you and, in fact, another potato soup!! This is 2bit Granny's recipe... Somehow I inherited Granny's recipe box, yes, 2bit lucked out. Granny lived in the good ole days when women carried around recipe boxes in their purses. Well, they may not have carried them in their purses, but everyone had their recipes in their recipe boxes. 2Bit for two, thinks that real women probably do this and thinks 2Bits might should do it.

Anyhoo, this is a nice hearty potato soup.. It has not an ounce of cheese in it (sorry Meg!); so 2Bit for 2 would like to think it is a pretty healthy potato soup recipe. The only really unhealthy things in it are butter and a little bit of flour, but when you consider how much soup the recipe can yield, the fatty factors are not too shabby. So you can still wear that scandalous costume tonight when you go trick or treating!! You know 2Bit will; so watch out Lexington!                                          

The recipe:

Annie Belle's Hearty Potato Soup

6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

5 carrots, diced

6 celery stalks, diced

2 quarts of water

1/2 onion chopped

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt (a lot more than this to your taste)

1/2 teaspoon pepper (again, 2bit used a lot more)

1-1/2 cups milk

1. So let's start by choppin' up the potatoes, carrots, and celery. 2Bit added more carrots than what the recipe called for (2 measly carrots!); because the carrot to other veggie ratio was low.

Look at that beautiful tater.. 2Bit simply used diced white potatoes. Don't be fooled if the potato bag only says that they are good for mashing, roasting, and frying, 2Bit tote was... FYI, they are also good for making soup.

2Bit couldn't remember the last time she used an adult, non-baby carrot! It took 2bit back to her youth. For those of you who don't remember these old school wonders, you have to shave off the nasty outer skin with a knife before you use them, JIC any 14 year olds are viewing the blog and want to make some soup.

Next get your celery and chop off the white ends, leaves, and generally, anything that just don't look right. This is when your women's (or men's- 2bit is a proud supporter of cooking men) intuition comes in.

This is the part of the celery that made the "cut"... Oh haha. Pun intended.

These are all the chopped veggies...

See the steamy heartiness?

2. In a large kettle (you don't need a pot this massive, necessarily, but 2Bit did not know that at the time), cook potatoes, carrots and celery in water until tender, about 20 minutes.  

While the other veggies are cooking, go ahead and dice your onion. Granny called for 1 onion, but 2Bit just used 1/2 of a large onion.

3. Drain, reserving liquid (gonna add it later) and setting vegetables aside.

4. In the same kettle, saute onion in butter until soft. 

2Bit used a wonderful thing called light butter... Granny didn't have this in her day nor would she probably pay extra to use it now... Yet she was always skinny. How, Granny? How?

  5. Stir in flour, salt and pepper, and gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened. 

6. Gently stir in cooked vegetables (or just dump them in the pot like 2Bit did).

 

7. The recipe says to add 2 cup or more of reserved cooking liquid until soup is desired consistency.

This is where the recipe and 2Bit are not of one mind because 2Bit added probably over 8 cups of the liquid because it wouldn't be very soupy otherwise. 2Bit can't see how you could only add 1 cup of the liquid. 2Bit would say add 6 cups of the reserved liquid and keep going until you get your desired liquid to veggie ratio, while maintaining the creamy flavor and adding salt and pepper as you go. 

Add a little Italian parsley (purely for looks b/c it kinda tastes strange)

And Voila!

2Bit truly hopes you enjoy this soup.. From Granny's box to your belly :)

2Bit has an exclusive peak of Granny's recipe box... So many years preparing meals with love. Sorry if this post was too Granny-focused, but she is kinda a 2Bit family hero.