To meals editor Shilpa Uskokovic, relating to residence cooking, low-cost is the best praise. Every month, in What a Steal, she’s sharing a extremely craveable recipe—and exhibiting us how to avoid wasting $$$ alongside the best way.
I’ve been responsible of shopping for a sack of potatoes on the retailer, solely to have them turn into a science experiment in my pantry just a few weeks later, slowly rising inexperienced tentacles. Et tu? For us, then, I developed a potato soup so remarkably luxurious, so laughably low-cost, that no potato henceforth shall ever be left behind.
Let’s begin with the potatoes, a 5-lb. bag of which regularly prices lower than a latte. There’s maybe no different ingredient in your kitchen that’s so economical and so versatile. Potatoes are the last word actors, taking part in extra roles than Meryl Streep, seamlessly going from mashed to boiled to stir-fried to just fried to roasted to baked.
This soup can deal with both russets or Yukon Golds. The previous evokes the acquainted consolation of baked potatoes, whereas the latter yields a golden colour and silkier texture. Use whichever you could have round, or whichever prices much less on the retailer.
A beneficiant quantity of onion, at all times in season and simply as cheap as potatoes, supplies additional bulk and physique to the soup. Their sharp allium chunk tames into sweetness as they simmer away. White onions are mildest however use yellow onions if that’s all you could have available (simply keep away from pink onions as they’ll flip the soup a muddy greige). Dried thyme supplies light depth and woodsy taste, proving dried herbs have their place in each thrifty kitchen due to their lengthy life and low value.
Simmering the potatoes and onions in broth releases the potato’s starch, slowly thickening the soup and rendering it velvety and thick. This pure creaminess negates the necessity to add a whole lot of fats, so it takes solely a modest ½ cup bitter cream for the soup to style luxurious and lavish. And relating to the broth, boxed does the trick (or go for a focus like Higher Than Bouillon, which is even cheaper).
To complete the soup, skip spendy bacon and cheese for a scattering of herbs, extra of that bitter cream, and a little bit of chopped pickled peppers, which carry the identical sensory delight of salt-acid-crunch with not one of the sticker shock of cured meat.
It’s chilly and drizzly as I write this and, now that I consider it, I do have a bag of potatoes within the pantry. For sure, I do know what I’m having for dinner tonight.
