Creamy Cheesy Potato Carrot Soup

Thick and cozy, potato carrot soup is soul warming comfort food! Add in a good dose of sharp cheddar cheese and…just a little bit of bacon, and you have a satisfying winter dinner on the table in about 45 minutes.

I adore potato soup in the winter! Sometimes when I’m going to be out all day and want to come home to a hot dinner I make it in the slow cooker, like with my Potato Leek Soup, but potato soup on the stove top is quick comfort food for any chilly, snowy, or rainy weekday.

And this creamy, cheesy potato soup has it all:

• Plenty of cheese! I went with a sharp NY cheddar to balance the flavor of the cheese with the meltability (that is totally a word)
• Bacon! What can I say? 😉
• Quick to make!
• Simple! 8 ingredients total. And that includes potatoes, carrots, and cheese – ingredients you probably figured were in the recipe.
• Reheats well for lunches and those ‘leftovers for dinner’ nights

Once I decided I was going to make a new potato soup recipe for the blog, the only questions I had when I was developing it were:

1. How many pounds of potatoes I should use and,
2. What to match with the potatoes?

These were good questions! 🙂 Luckily I do this recipe developing thing for a living so it didn’t take me long to decide on the answers.

The answer to the first question (how many pounds) turns out to be about 1 1/2 lbs of potatoes for every 4 cups of stock. Go over 2 lbs and you get…shall we call it soupy mashed potatoes? Because that’s what it was like until I added some more stock to thin it out. Go under 1 lb and you are moving into very thin soup. Excellent for a cold soup, but not for a comforting winter potato soup.

As for what to pair with the potatoes, I did a mental survey of winter produce since I knew I wanted to ground the soup, as it were, in the season. And carrots seemed perfect! I loved the idea of the golden hue and the sweetness I would get from the combination. Once I tried it, it was clear carrots were the right choice for this soup.

One thing I decided my potato carrot soup didn’t need was any cream or milk. The bacon (and the bacon fat) give the soup plenty of richness, and it’s good to step away from the cream sometimes. (Especially since I’ve been testing that panna cotta recipe for weeks now! That was plenty of cream.)

Add in a great winter salad, like my Broccoli Apple Salad or my Winter Romaine Salad, and maybe a nice glass of white wine or beer and you will be comforted and cozy even on the dreariest of winter’s days.

– Happy Eating, Annemarie

Print Recipe

Creamy Cheesy Potato Carrot Soup

My creamless creamy potato carrot soup is full of flavor from buttery yellow potatoes, sweet carrots, bacon fat, and sharp cheddar cheese. Pureed until smooth and topped with crispy bacon and scallions, this soup is great comfort food for dinner on chilly nights.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 575kcal

Author: Just a Little Bit of Bacon

Ingredients

• 4 oz bacon, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 5 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 large carrots, chopped
• 1 1/2 lb yellow potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch dice
• 4 cups chicken stock, low or no sodium
• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 3 medium scallions, sliced

Instructions

• Heat your soup pot over medium low heat. Once the pot is hot, add the bacon and cook until crisp. 10-12 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate. Pour out all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat.
  
• Add the onions, garlic, and carrots to the pot and cook until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Turn down the heat to low if the onions are browning too much, but a little is okay.
  
• Add the potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, or until tender.
  
• Once the potatoes are tender, puree the soup until smooth. Then, while stirring constantly, add the shredded cheese in handfuls, letting each addition melt before adding the next.
  
• Warm the soup back up if you need to then serve topped with crumbled bacon and sliced scallions.

Notes

• Either puree the soup in a blender in two batches or right in the pot using a stick blender.
• In place of the cheddar cheese you can use odds and ends of any melty cheese you have in the house.
• I prefer the yellow potatoes for their creamy flavor, but I have made the soup with white potatoes and with russets with good results.