Perfect Potato Soup!

Another recipe - so delicious and yummy! I could eat this soup until I made myself sick; seriously, that is how much I love it. I've always been a fan of potato soup and you just can't buy canned or bag soup mixes that make good potato soup; so I kept trying out recipes until I found this one. And it's the winner! It takes just a little bit of time, but it's so worth it once it's done - because it's delicious! Enjoy the pictures and try the recipe at the bottom!

Making a roux...it's all butter & flour folks...okay and maybe some potato water!

Adding milk...just a little bit at a time.

The rest of the reserved potato water - which sounds gross, but it's not really.

I like this but maybe you'd use something else - you choose.

The potatoes jumping in the pot to make something delicious!

Hams away!

Cheese if you please!

Don't forget to stir, stir, stir!

The finished product - in my very expensive plastic "china"...

Garnished with some shredded cheese and a small dollop of sour cream!

Perfect Potato Soup

-2-3 potatoes, cut up

-1 cup reserved potato cooking water

-3 tbsp. butter

-3 tbsp. flour

-1 tsp. black pepper

-1 tbsp. onion flakes

-1 tsp. sugar

-1 tsp. vegetable seasoning (this is optional, I only recently started using it - see the above picture)

-3 cups milk

-1 package small cubed hams (you can also use bacon or cut up ham lunch meat - or all three)

-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Wash, cut and cook the potatoes until they are tender enough to be pierced with a fork. Drain the water, saving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Melt the 3 tbsp. of butter in your pot, adding in the flour and pepper. This should be mixed together to form a roux; a thickening agent, you will need to add a little of your reserve liquid to help it keep from getting too thick too fast - just keep stirring!

Slowly add in your reserve liquid and 3 cups of milk, alternating. You don't want this to ever boil...just gently bubble. The soup will thicken as it cooks, but don't forget to stir, stir, stir! Since this is a cream based soup, it will stick if you don't stir.

Add in the onion flakes, sugar and vegetable seasoning.

Add in your meat of choice and the shredded cheese, stirring until it is all combined well.

Cook about 15-20 on medium to low; the soup should thicken a bit as it cooks.

Serve garnished with shredded cheese, sour cream, bacon and maybe even some chives....whatever floats your boat!

ENJOY!