Blogs

1 Degree Soup

This hearty soup recipe was inspired by the weather: it was ONE degree outside when I got home after work. ONE. I needed some comfort food and I needed it fast. So, I created a Potato-Bacon Corn Chowder which I have appropriately named “1 Degree Soup” and it is gluten free! Let’s dive in to your ingredients:

Ingredients

5 strips of thick-cut center cut bacon

3 medium potatoes (butter or white)

1 medium yellow onion (I prefer Vidalia)

2 cups corn soup stock

1 cup soy milk

2/3 cup skim milk ricotta cheese

2 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 tsp salt (optional)

Pepper to taste

Dried parsley flakes (to top it off)

Cook the bacon in a large pot over medium heat, and cook until crispy. When done, take out the bacon, crumble it, and set aside. Leave about 2 Tbsp of drippings in the pot. I am including a “Beauty Shot” of bacon because: you always should include beauty shots of bacon when you can.

Drop the potatoes, onion, and bacon into the large pot with drippings. Check out the photo below to see what size to cut your potatoes for even cooking.

Cook and continuously stir for about 5 minutes. (The potatoes will not be cooked all the way through at the end of the 5 minutes!)

Before you add the soup stock, your mixture will look something like this:

Now pour in the corn soup stock, soy milk, and ricotta cheese. Bring the whole mixture to a boil and keep stirring.  I used a Gluten Free Corn Soup Stock from Wegmans (please see photo below). You could make your own stock using equal parts creamed corn, yellow onion, and celery with an immersion blender! If YOU DO THAT, you’re so advanced and I am proud of you!

Once your soup is bubbling, drop in the butter and frozen peas. Lower the mixture to a low-heat, simmer, cover it, and leave it alone for 10 minutes. Check out the picture below and don’t worry! It will not be super-thick at this point. It will thicken up as you simmer.

Try it! Add salt and pepper, to taste, give it a good stirring, re-cover the pot and let it simmer for another 10 minutes (or until potatoes are tender).  Serve it in your favorite bowl and top it off with the dried parsley flakes. Makes 6 bowls.

I used the Le Creuset 7.25 QT French Oven with Grill Lid (click here to find it) for this recipe and it is a heavenly way to make this soup, but any large stock pot will do!

Do you have a favorite soup? I would love to hear about it! I certainly hope you enjoy this and there’s more to come! ~ @MARY QVC