Baked Potato Soup

I realize that anything less than a five-star review for such an obviously adored recipe won't win me any fans, but I do have a few comments about this soup recipe. First off, how could anyone make this in a medium saucepan? Eight cups of milk, a stick of butter, a cup of sour cream, four large potatoes, fourteen strips of bacon? What's the definition of "medium" here? I used my biggest pan of all, the dutch oven, and it still threatened to slosh over the top with all that whisking. Then, the issue of seasoning... this soup needs a TON of salt, in my book. I added regular, garlic, onion, and seasoned salt -- without it, it tasted a bit like wallpaper paste, even with all that bacon, onion and cheese... kind of peculiar. Since it requires so much seasoning (salt, mainly), the seasonings should really be listed in the ingredients and directions, in my opinion. With no direction given, I went ahead and roughly chopped my baked potatoes before adding to the milk mixture, but the soup was then hugely lumpy. I used a potato masher to squash it down, which allowed for a much better consistency and texture. I also wonder about those potato peels... wish I had chopped mine up a lot smaller, as I'm making the soup for some neighbors with little kids, and I wonder if the kids will be grossed out by the big pieces of potato peel. All in all, I think this recipe is kind of heavy on the work, light on the finished product, but I realize I'm in a definite minority here -- sorry, just have to be honest! P.S. Since posting this review, I feel I must add that the flavor of this soup was outstanding, especially the next day. With adjustments for pan size and seasonings, I can see how it earned all those five-star reviews. Thanks!

Let me start out by saying, I used this recipe as my starting point and worked from there. The recipe is good, but I used my ideas to sort of cut the fat, and I didn't really like the idea of the peels being just stirred in. Anyway, I started out by sauteing the green onions with some celery (my g-ma always added celery to hers) and then made the rue (sp?). I then added 1 reg sized chicken broth, and then used FF half and half/ 1% milk to make the consistency that I wanted. I also used baby red's (peel and all), cut them into the pieces and just cooked them in the soup. It is really a challenge to get seasonings right (IMHO), so for this I used cayenne, s/p, and some all purpose seasoning. Off the heat, I added the cheese and some RF sour cream and used RF bacon bits in the end. It really was a nice, quick flavorful soup. I thought that this recipe was a great place to start!

This soup is wonderful, Evelyn. We had it for supper the other night and my whole family gave it 5 enthusiastic stars*****. I thought adding the chopped potato peels was a great idea and something I haven't tried before. The bacon and cheese add just the right yummm factor. My husband and I took the left-overs to work for lunch. Thanks for a lovely recipe.

Recipe as written was ok, not one that I would make again. However, it was a fantastic base. I cooked celery and chopped onion in the butter then added the flour to make the roux. I used a mixture of half milk and half 1/2 & 1/2, added seasoning salt, sea salt and pepper. I also omitted the skins just personal preference. We will continue to play until I get it perfect, but its getting closer. thanks for getting me started

So this was a good base recipe! Made two changes...blend 1 potato along with some celery and carrot with 1/4 of the total milk you use to give it a nice creamy texture. Add some Tony Creole seasoning to give it a bit of zing.