(Black Angus Restaurant)

4 large baking potatoes
2/3 cup butter or margarine (I used margarine)
2/3 cup flour
6 cups milk (I used 5 1/2 cups of fat-free)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (I used black, it was fine)
4 green onions, chopped
12 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (I used turkey bacon - you could use the veggie kind, too)
1 1/4 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces sour cream (I used fat-free)

Wash, dry and prick potatoes with a fork. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour or until done (you can do these on the grill if you don't want to heat up the kitchen). Let cool. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the pulp; set aside. You can use the skins for stuffed potato skins, or discard.

Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over low heat. Add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly (I cooked it for about 8 minutes or so).

Add potato pulp, salt pepper, 2 tablespoons green onion, half of the bacon, and 1 cup of cheese. Cook until thoroughly heated. Stir in the sour cream. You can add extra milk if you want it to be thinner (it will thicken as it cools). Serve with remaining green onions, bacon and cheese. Makes 10 servings (or 6 large bowls).

Elem secy, July 15

I made this for lunch today.  I added extra cheese (because I LOVE
cheese), and used fake bacon bits (mistake), and baked the potatoes in
the microwave (not enough time for the oven).  I also added a little
more salt than was called for because the fake bacon wasn't very salty.
Other than the bacon bits, we really enjoyed it.  Thank you for the
yummy new dish.  We plan to have it again with REAL bacon.  LOL

Brenda and Frank



Vicky Larmour, July 16

I made Kellie's baked potato soup last night! 

I didn't really make any substitutions, but I didn't bother to measure
any of the ingredients, I just chucked them in.

After an hour in the oven, I tested one of the baked potatoes and it was
done, so I took them out and turned the oven off.  After I cut the
potatoes open, I discovered that the other three weren't done, so I
ended up cutting the hard flesh out and putting it through the food
processor to mash it up a bit. By the time I finished there was potato
*everywhere* - on me, on the floor, on the worktops, you name it... :-) 

Anyway, once I'd cleaned up enough that I didn't feel guilty sitting
down to eat in such a mess, the soup was really yummy!  We'll be having
it again tonight and then freezing the remainder I think.

Thanks for a great recipe Kellie!

Vicky



Jean Peters, July 16

Robin wrote:
> I under cooked the potatoes a bit, so after I scooped the rather firm 
> flesh into the soup, I put my immersion blender to good use and blended 
> it.  No mess anywhere!  
                     
Well, I cooked the potatoes *perfectly*, so there! :P)
                     
Our variations first:
                     
I also started cooking the potatoes before realising that I hadn't
enough milk, so I called Mark to ask him to pick up 2 litres on his way
home, as well as sour cream and bacon (I really didn't plan this too
well, ).  We normally get 1 litre of milk every two or three days, so
this request surprised him somewhat, but he got the milk.  He forgot the
bacon, and the corner shop didn't have sour cream, so we were straight
into improvisation. I had also decided to use normal onions instead of
the green onions. 
                     
I baked the potatoes, and left them to cool while I was waiting for Mark
to come home.  I made the roux, and added the milk with no problems.  I
added the potato pulp and used the immersion blender to mix it all
together. Then I chopped the onions which I briefly nuked before adding.
I then got creative with herbs and spices adding the following:
                     
1 heaped teaspoon dried parsley;
1 heaped teaspoon dried chives;
2 heaped teaspoons paprika (would have used cayenne, but had none); 
2 teaspoons ground black pepper;
2 teaspoons ground seasalt.
                     
As we had no sour cream, I added lemon juice to fresh cream which
thickened it and added the zing needed to the soup.  I also added about
2 cups of grated cheese to the soup.
                     
It was nice, I had about 2.5 ladles of it.  Mark ate about 2 ladles of
it, but had bread on the side (I found it too heavy to add bread to).  I
put the leftovers in a 1.5 litre plastic tub and it nearly overflowed!
We were both of the opinion that it *did* need the bacon.
                     
Jean



fdrc, July 19

Jean Peters wrote:
> Well, I cooked the potatoes *perfectly*, so there!  :P)

Me too!  ;-)  Although I did have to cut them open after an hour and
leave them in the oven another 1/2 hour before they were ready.

> I also started cooking the potatoes before realising that I hadn't
> enough milk,

Aha!  I have finally solved the running-out-of-milk problem -- I made
this, like most of my recipies, with nonfat dried milk (I keep a huge
box in the pantry).  Since we don't drink milk, it tends to spoil before
we can use it all, and I've found there's little to no difference in
taste using powdered milk for cooking.

> On the plus side, Mark's going to make stuffed potato skins tomorrow -
> yummy :-).

Mmm.  I stuck the potato skins back in the oven after I turned it off to
make them crisp and ate them with ketchup.  Almost spoiled my appetite
for the soup!  But no, it was delicious.  :-) 
Definitely a keeper; thanks Kellie!

Fiona 



Jodi Graham Wood, July 25

I just made the baked potato soup and it's a keeper!  We both *really*
liked it. Although I'd probably prefer it in the winter - soup makes me
sweat! I used turkey bacon and would probably use real bacon if I made
it for company. I also added corn and would do that again.
                     
Great recipe, Kellie!
Jodi



jess h., August 25

We've been eating out a lot lately, so the only recipe I've made so far is 
the potato soup.  Thanks Kellie, it was really yummy!  

I made it during one of the unseasonably cold weeks in July (yeah, sorry 
I'm just posting about it now), since I never want to eat soup when it's
hot.  I only made a half recipe, since I didn't think we'd be able to
eat 6 large bowls of soup before it went bad.  We ate two big bowls of
it for dinner (with nothing else), and I had the rest for lunch the next
day.

I was working at home on the day we made this, so I baked the potatoes
in the afternoon and left them out to cool while waiting for DH to get
home.  We fried the bacon, chopped up the green onions, and scooped out
the potato pulp and mashed it up with a fork.  We didn't have any
cheddar cheese, but we had a bag of shredded Mexican four cheese blend
(cheddar, monterey jack, and...?) so we used that.  

I think I might have done something stupid when halving the ingredients,
because it seemed like there was a LOT of flour, so the soup started
out kind of lumpy, but it didn't seem to matter once I added the potato. 
We were also a little bit short on milk, so I think the soup was thicker 
than it was supposed to be, but that was OK.

I was getting pretty hungry at the end (and it smelled good!), so I just 
dumped in a lot of fat free sour cream without measuring it.  When I make 
it again I will use a bit less (and/or a bit more milk), since the final 
product had a pretty strong sour cream taste to it.

We'll definitely be making this again!

Jessica



shellys, September 7

I served the soup as the first course...I used slightly less green onion
than the recipe called for, since my mom is not big on onions.  I put
all the bacon in at once and only put extra cheese on the table to add.
Just one question for those of you who have made the soup...how "chunky"
did you leave your potatoes? I used a melon baller to scoop out the
potato, and then used a masher to squish it up a bit, so I had smaller
chunks, and it worked great.

Shelly



Jenni, October 8
 
I made the Potato Soup recipe at least a month ago, and forgot to post
about it.  This recipe was a terrific success.  It was really easy to do
and it made a ton of soup.  The only problem that I had was I used bacon
I cooked the morning before and it was a bit soggy and not enough.  But
other than that, we loved it.  Thanks for a terrific recipe!
 
-Jenni



Barbara Warner, October 25

Kelli, what a great recipe!  I did make some minor changes to the
recipe, a substitution and a couple of deletions: I used Yukon Gold
(yellow, thin skinned) instead of baking potatoes.  This gave the soup a
golden colour and also provided more fibre (while allowing me to avoid
peeling the potatoes), as I used the whole potato (flesh and skin). I
thought of Vicky immediately  when my attempt tp puree the potatoes went
horribly wrong!  It took a few batches and a long while to get all the
potatoes (8 small/medium sized ones) through.  By the end, I had potato
puree all over the counter, sink, and even on the dishwasher :-)

I forgot to put in the salt and pepper - didn't notice even after I
tasted it.  (Just thought of it now, in fact).

I too used water and powdered skim milk instead of fresh. It still
tasted creamy and rich, partly due I think to using puree instead of
just pieces of potato.

Everyone loved it (Again, it was my DH, his friend and I).  We served it
with tortiere (French Canadian mixed meat pie), so it was a very
filling, "Canadian" meal. (Ottawa was settled by lots of Irish and
French people, so it seemed like a regional meal.)  The weather is
getting wintery now, and the meal was seasonal.  WE have a ton of
leftovers, so we might end up freezing some for yummy work lunches.

Next time, I think I'll try to find a vegetarian substitute for the
bacon, and something less fattening for the roux (the flour/butter
mixture). Any suggestions? I might try half olive oil, half chicken
stock and see how that works for the roux.  (Both are lower in bad
cholesterol and fats than butter).  I'm stumped on the vegetarian
substitution, though -- we don't really like onions and leeks are
sometimes hard to find.  Maybe some garlic??

--Barbara (who only has 4 Club recipes to go!  I think the Mex lasagne
is next....)