Holy Moly Potato Soup -- The Comfort of a Quiet Farmhouse Week

The week after Thanksgiving is underrated. The guests have gone back to their lives, the table has been folded back to its everyday size, and the refrigerator contains more good food per square inch than any other week of the year. I have always considered the Monday after Thanksgiving the best eating day in the calendar: turkey soup for lunch, the carcass having been in the pot since Friday, producing a stock clear and golden and smelling of everything we cooked four days ago.

Turkey soup is not a recipe so much as a salvage operation of the highest order. The carcass, the pan drippings, a halved onion charred directly on the burner, two carrots, a bay leaf. Six hours of low simmering. Strain. Remove the remaining meat from the bones. Add egg noodles. The result improves on the original the way second readings improve on first — the flavor has had time to consider itself.

Helen and I walked the property Saturday. The leaves are all down now. The maples stand in their winter architecture, bare and gray and exact, their structure visible in a way that summer conceals. I always find the sugar maples more interesting without leaves — the way certain books are more interesting on a second reading when you know how they end. What is there was always there. You needed the context to see it.

I have been thinking about Christmas. Not anxiously — I have had sixty-five of them and the anxiety wore off somewhere in the forties — but with the specific planning consciousness that December requires. The maple candy is first: batches for family, batches for Helen's colleagues at the church auxiliary, a batch for the farm down the road. Then the brown bread, in the coffee cans my father used, wrapped in the cloth that Helen's mother passed to her. Some gifts require no shopping. Some require only patience and heat and time.

David called Sunday. He is fine. Karen is fine. The kids are fine. We are fine. Vermont autumn is over. Winter has announced itself. We are ready. The farmhouse has done this for six generations and intends to continue.

The turkey soup had its day on Monday, and it was everything it needed to be — but by midweek, with the carcass long spent and the refrigerator finally beginning to resemble something ordinary, I found myself reaching for something different: a soup that required no planning ahead, no four-day simmering, no salvage operation at all. Helen and I had come in cold from walking the property, and what the moment asked for was something thick and immediate and deeply satisfying. That’s when this potato soup earns its name.

Holy Moly Potato Soup

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 6 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, plus more for topping
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 green onions, sliced, for garnish

Instructions

1. Cook the bacon. In a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, cook the chopped bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving about 1 tablespoon of drippings in the pot.
2. Soften the aromatics. Add the butter to the pot with the bacon drippings. Add the diced onion and cook over medium heat for 4–5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook another minute until fragrant.
3. Add potatoes and broth. Add the diced potatoes and pour in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a steady simmer. Cook uncovered for 18–20 minutes, until the potatoes are completely tender and beginning to break down at the edges.
4. Mash partially. Use a potato masher or the back of a large spoon to mash roughly half the potatoes directly in the pot, leaving some chunks for texture. This thickens the soup without requiring a blender.
5. Add dairy. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the milk and sour cream until fully incorporated. Do not boil once the dairy is added.
6. Melt in the cheese. Add the shredded cheddar a handful at a time, stirring after each addition until melted and smooth. Season with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.
7. Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with reserved bacon, additional cheddar, and sliced green onions. Serve immediately with crusty bread or crackers.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 380 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 620mg