STEPS
INGREDIENTS
All ingredients shown except for the cheese!
Slice bacon as shown.
Break bacon apart in the pan, the heat will do most of the work for you.
While bacon is cooking, add your butter to a large soup pot.
Then your olive oil.
While your butter and oil is melting, roughly chop your onion, mince your garlic, and slice your celery.
Add to the soup pot.
While your vegetables are softening (and bacon is still cooking) peel and clean off the potatoes.
Cut them as shown. (This potato has already been cut in half length wise)
Add to your chopped up vegetables and mix around to make sure the butter/oil is evenly coated.
Once coated, add a carton of chicken broth (and a half of another one) or until potatoes are covered completely.
Usually by this time, the bacon is cooked. Make sure it's extremely crispy! I find if it's not, it softens up when you put it in the soup later on.
Put on paper towel to cool. DON'T THROW OUT THE GREASE THAT'S IN THE PAN JUST YET!
I used an aged white cheddar, and just a regular cheddar in this recipe. I've used lots of different kinds, feel free to experiment with this.😊
Got my mom to shred the cheese, since it's the worst thing to do ever..
Finished! Together this was roughly 2-2.5 cups of cheese.
By the time I finished cleaning, the potatoes were soft and cooked when I boiled the broth. Remove the soup pot from heat, and roughly blend with an immersion blender.
Add your milk and cream.
Add your salt and pepper to whatever your taste is. I like it a bit peppery. Then your cheese, bacon, and julienne'd carrots (not pictured) you can reserve some for garnish, but I didn't this time.
This is where the best part comes in... Put in 2-3 tablespoons of that delicious bacon grease right in the pot (healthy, right?) it just gives it a little more of that bacon flavour.😍 Then mix in.
Try garnishing with cheese, bacon or my favourite, scallions. I just had none☹️ So, I dished up with some yummy buttered French bread. SO GOOD!! (I totally didn't have two bowls.)
- 1 large white onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 4 large stalks of celery
- 1.5 cartons of sodium free chicken broth
- 1 pound of bacon
- 1 cup of 2% milk
- 3/4 cup of half and half cream
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 heaping tablespoon of unsalted butter
- 8 small russet potatoes OR 5 large ones
- Julienne'd carrot
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups of cheddar cheese