Potato Soup for Everone

As a mom with two kids who have opposite opinions on everything I am a big fan of meals that allow everyone to add what they like. The base of this meal is a potato soup, and everything else is optional and served in separate bowls. I even recommend blending half the soup and serving it as two separate soups because my son wants chuncky potato soup and my daughter wants creamy potato soup...of course. When you are finished cooking each part I recommend putting them into idividual serving dishes and into a warm oven (put it on your ovens lowest possible temp) to keep them warm until everything is ready.

Makes: 4 servings

Preparation time: 10m
Cooking time: 40m
Total time: 50m

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs ground beef or bison
  • 64 ounces vegetable stock
  • 16 ounces beef bone broth
  • 3 russet potatoes; peeled,washed and chopped
  • 2 Tbsp Olive oil
  • 3 large carrots; washed and chopped
  • 1 bunch of rainbow chard; washed, chopped with ribs and leaves divided into separate bowls
  • Optional: corn, peas, shredded cheese, hot sauce

Equipment: large saucepan, small saucepan, blender

Instructions:

  1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high. Then brown the beef.
  2. Remove the beef from the pan to a bowl, cover and keep warm.
  3. Pour the vegetable stock and bone broth into the large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Then add the potatoes and cook for 12 minutes then turn off the heat.
  4. Meanwhile, remove 1 cup of vegetable stock and put it in the small saucepan with the chopped chard leaves. Cook the chard leaves for a couple of minutes until it is soft then remove them to a separate bowl, cover and keep warm. Then strain the stock back into the large saucepan.
  5. Add 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil to the small saucepan and sauté the carrots and chard ribs over medium heat until they start to brown on the edges (5-10min)
  6. Just before serving place half of the potato soup in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve the soup in 2 separate containers so that people can pick either chunky or smooth, or chose to mix them. Serve with any other items your family likes that would be good in soup. We chose corn, peas, shredded cheese, and hot sauce. Each person can add what they want to build their own meal.