Cooking with Food Storage: Potato Soup

This recipe is another favorite of mine. It is soooo easy to make! This soup lends itself to cooking when the power is out because all you have to do is heat water! 

Here is the list of ingredients:

• 8 cups of water
• 3 TBS minced onion or powdered onion (I grow my own onion and dry it for powder.)
• 2 TBS garlic powder (I grow my own garlic and dry it for powder.)
• 4 to 5 TBS chicken bullion or 4 to 5 chicken bullion cubes
• 1/2 cup butter (you can use powdered butter here but it will need about 1/8 cup oil and 1/8 cup shelf stable cream as well.  I sometimes use butter that I make.  You can see how to make your own butter here.)
• 2 1/2 cups instant potato flakes

Heat the water to boil and add the bullion cubes.  While the water was heating, I gathered all the ingredients except the potato flakes and added them as well. If you are using powdered butter, this recipe will also need both 1/8 cup oil (I use olive oil) and 1/8 cup shelf stable cream.  You can make it without the oil and cream, but it tastes different - not bad, just different. My husband prefers it with the oil and cream.  When the water is boiling, stir everything a few times and turn the heat off.

Slowly add the instant potato flakes to the pan and stir.  You may find that you need a little  less than 2 1/2 cups.  If you add them slowly, you can stop when the taste and texture is to your liking. We like it a little on the thick side so I add the entire amount.

There are many ways to combine all of these ingredients. If you are ever in a power outage, all you really need to do is heat the water and then combine all the ingredients together and stir until smooth. If you use chicken bullion cubes, you may need to get the water to boiling so the cubes will dissolve. I used bullion cubes this time, but lately I have been thinking I need to purchase some powdered bullion. If you are a fan of canning your own chicken stock, this is a perfect use for it!

Garnish with the toppings of your choice. For this meal, I used a package of combo cheeses from the store and parsley I grew myself.

There you have it, easy potato soup! Serve with some garlic toast on a cold evening. Yum!