Family Favorite Potato Soup

• Because I am giving you the low down on how I make this meal two different ways this is going to be very informal instruction, I'm going to tell you how I make this soup it's really very uncomplicated and you'll see that as we get into it.
• I always start this meal by washing my potatoes, carrots and celery.
• Next I dice the onions, celery and carrots, placing them together in a bowl off to the side. Then I proceed to peel and dice all of my potatoes.
• Then I heat 1 TBS of butter over medium high heat – lately I've been using my Drew Barrymore beautiful multi-cooker to sauté and slow cook however before I used my biggest/deepest skillet to heat the butter and sauté my veggies. After the butter is melted and a bit sizzley I add all of the onions, carrots and celery and allow them to get a little bit caramelized and soft.
• While those veggies soften up I quickly smash and chop my garlic and throw it into the skillet/multi-cooker with the veggies and give it a good stir.
• I then add in the diced potatoes allowing them to sauté a bit. I do stir frequently as potatoes do have a tendency to stick but I just want to get a par-cook on the potatoes. And here is where we are going to break off into two different scenarios for making this potato soup.

Freezer Meal Potato Soup Prep

• After you get a good par-cook on the potatoes (you can tell because the outside of them will turn a bit more translucent however they will still be opaque and hard in the middle) remove the pan from the heat and turn off the burner. Allow the veggies to cool and then transfer them to a pre labeled (trust me writing on a freezer bag with food in it is not fun) freezer safe container. I prefer freezer bags (disposable or the silicone reusable kind it doesn't matter) But freezer bags will give you the opportunity to squeeze out as much air as possible to mitigate any potential risk of freezer burn.
• At this point the bag is ready for the freezer. When you are ready to cook your freezer meal soup you can take the bag of potato soup prep out of the freezer the day before and allow it to thaw in the refrigerator (but to be honest if you forget it is not a big deal you can add it frozen to the slow cooker on high) So, let's pretend you have made the soup as a freezer meal and you are now day of potato soup what do you do? I'm glad you asked, the instructions will pick up and be exactly the same as day-of soup prep so lets hop there and find out what we are doing to finish up this tasty soup!

Day of Potato Soup & Finishing Instructions for Potato Soup Freezer Meal

• So you have either just finished sautéing all of your veggies for this delicious potato soup OR you have taken your bag of pre-sauted veggies out of the freezer and let them thaw (or not). You are going to add all of these veggies to your slow cooker.
• Next add 64oz of chicken stock and set the slow cooker – I do low if it is going to be cooking more than 6 hours but high if I'm getting a late start to the day and the soup is going to be cooking less than 6 hours.
• right before serving time I like to thicken my soup up by making a roux. You will add 4 TBS of butter to a sauce pan and heat over medium high heat.
• Once the butter is melted add 1/4 cup of flour and stir constantly for a few minutes until the flour starts to cook off the raw taste, it should start to smell a bit nutty when that's happened.
• Next add in 1 cup of heavy cream stirring well to incorporate. This will create a thick sauce, if it's too thick you can always add more cream.
• Once you've created your thick roux add it to the crockpot and stir to combine. it will thicken up the potato soup and give it a creamy texture.
• I usually add a bit more heavy cream to the soup for posterity. Lastly I season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.