Veggie Loaded Potato Soup & Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

Yay my first recipe post! I had promised some friends on facebook that I would post this recipe for them after sharing pictures and a delicious description with them.

There is almost always a story to how I come up with some of the things I do.  This recipe is no different. I follow and peruse many different foodies on Instagram, many of which are exclusively paleo cooks or lifestyles. You will hear me talk about paleo often.  Here’s a link with a description if you feel like knowing what I’m talking about.  http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/what-is-paleo/

So Instagram! On an Instagram that I follow I came across a picture, not a recipe, for cauliflower and bacon soup. Now some of you may be going “Bacon! Bacon? But bacon is bad for you!” Eh wrong, not true. Some bacon is definitely nasty but you don’t have to give up on your bacon dreams in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle. You want uncured, no filler, gluten free, no nitrate or nitrite bacon. Yep it exists!! This is the kind I use.  If you have issues with pork, no worries there is a turkey version as well but you still want to be looking for the same attributes. Again, I digress. So I made the cauliflower and bacon soup, without the recipe, just from the idea and it was great!

So that same week I was at the store, with only a few bucks left in my grocery budget or any budget at all for that matter and I grabbed a bag of potatoes, which I rarely do. But let’s be honest if you need to feed people for cheap potatoes are the way to go. I needed a meat to go with them so I decided to go with ham following the same logic that leads to a cauliflower and bacon soap. So now I am making soup. But being the neurotic mom about veggies, I decided it needed to be different than regular potato soap. At least if I am going to make a soup with a seriously carb loaded base then it at least needed veggies. So following the same blueprint for the cauliflower soup and got some frozen squash, frozen broccoli, and onions. Now here is what you will have to understand and bear through if you want to learn recipes on my blog. I don’t really do recipes, so I will attempt to explain things the best I can. Hopefully this is a flaw that will improve over the lifetime of my blogging. 

This recipe is naturally gluten free (if your ham is, you could use any meat you want to, even bacon!) You could also make it vegetarian by leaving the meat out and using vegetable stock. It would be vegan if you left out the meat, cream, butter, and subbed vegetable stock. Any or all of these adaptations will work for this recipe. These recipes are not a science, just guidelines! Have fun with it!

Veggie Loaded Potato and Ham Soup

Ingredients:

About 1 ½ lbs peeled washed and diced potatoes

8 oz (half a bag) of frozen squash

½ to 1 diced onion or ½ bag frozen onions

About  20 oz frozen broccoli (1 ½ bags)

6-8 cups of chicken stock or vegetable stock (I use “Better than Bouillon” paste it is easier to use it for flavor)

I large ham steak chopped (or any other ham you want to use, it doesn’t matter)

1/4 to ½ cup half and half or cream (optional)

About 1 stick of butter

1-2 tsp of Thyme

Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste

Oh and I added a can of green chiles to mine, totally optional. You could try some jalapenos

FYI: this makes a ton! I have no power over portions when cooking

Directions:

While you are cutting potatoes have the squash, onions and about 2 tbsp of butter with salt and pepper going in a small saucepan, lid on. You want these to really cook down.

Start boiling potatoes in stock, they need to get really soft, you can add some butter here if you desire

After your squash and onion mixture is cooked way down transfer it to some sort of food processor and process

Put your squash and onion mixture back in the saucepan, this is where I added the green chiles. Whats happening here is that you are getting all your flavors happy together before you add it to the potatoes so you don’t end up overcooking the potatoes

Then, to the veggie mix add your diced ham, broccoli, more salt and pepper, garlic, thyme, and cream (you could use a little stock if you wanted to instead or I added more butter too).  You need enough liquid in there to cover your big pieces so they cook, not too much though you have a lot of liquid in the potatoes.

At this point I poured in the leftovers from my cauliflower and bacon soup . GENIUS!

When the potatoes are done transfer half of liquid and potatoes to some sort of food processor and process!

Dump the potatoes back together and when you feel satisfied that your veggie mix is cooked enough and tasty, add to potatoes.

Soup should be relatively thick and chunky

Serve with shredded cheese and/or green onions on top if desired

*Feel free to comment with questions, I will definitely answer them. 

Cauliflower & Bacon Soup

Ingredients:

I large head of cauliflower cut up. Don't waste the stems, use them

8 oz (half a bag) of frozen squash

½ to 1 diced onion or ½ bag frozen onions

6-8 cups chicken or vegetable stock (enough to cover cauliflower in pot)

I pkg bacon cooked and cut up (see rant above)

1/4 cup half and half or cream if desired

Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste

1-2 tsp Thyme

2 tbsp butter

Directions:
Boil cauliflower in stock covered. It needs to get super soft

In a saucepan mix squash, onions, salt, pepper, and butter. Put a top on and let it cook down really well.

Once squash and onions are cooked, run them through a food processor (a mixer works ok for this part, but I recommend a processor, it doesn't matter as much on the potato soup recipe)

Pour pureed mixture into the pot of boiling cooking cauliflower

When the cauliflower is really soft dump most of the water and about half to 3/4 of the cauliflower into a processor.

Pure pureed cauliflower back in with everything else and throw in that bacon and thyme.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, garlic, and cream if so desired and let cook all together a few more minutes so all the flavors get happy together.

*This recipe is gluten free. Just like the potato soup, this is easily adapted to vegan, vegetarian, pork free, paleo, and so on. Also easily adaptable to your own tastes! Have fun with it!