Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup

I loved potato soup. I have tried to make it a few times in the past, but every recipe was missing something. I’d move on to the next, and that one would be missing something different.

I came across this recipe for Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup from Mama Loves Food and decided to give it a try. I was intrigued because it used cream cheese instead of cream or milk.

I didn’t have my expectations too incredibly high as I apparently fail at making baked potato soup, but we were all pleasantly surprised. It was delicious. My daughter has started rating my food, and promptly informed me that this was ‘blog worthy,’ which means she really really liked it.

I didn’t really change anything about the original recipe. Except I cut it down. Either she has the world’s largest crock pot or her potatoes were really dense. I figured out halfway through my chopping that five pounds of diced potatoes were not going to fit in my 5 quart crock pot.

Oh well. Even with this cut back, it made 8 huge servings, about 1.5 cups each. I briefly considered subbing cauliflower for half the potatoes to cut back on calories. When I ran it through my recipe analyzer, though, I was surprised to find that one serving was only 200 calories a serving! I doubled checked that because WOW! It came to 275 with a crumbled piece of turkey bacon and some reduced fat cheddar cheese. Again, WOW!

Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup

3 lbs Russet Potatoes
½ Medium Yellow Onion
5 Cloves Garlic (1 Tbsp Diced Equivalent)
6 Cups Chicken Stock or Broth
12 oz Cream Cheese (I used Fat Free)
1 Tbsp Seasoned Salt (I used Bacon Salt)
Optional Garnishes: Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Sour Cream, Green Onions

Wash and dice potatoes, leaving the skin on. Also dice the onion.

Add potatoes, onion, garlic, seasoning, and broth to crock pot.

Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 10 hours.

Add the cream cheese and mix well. Mama Loves Food suggests using an immersion blender, which is what I did. I have a lot of fun kitchen stuffs. They make me happy.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can either take half the soup out, put it in a regular blender or food processor with the cream cheese, blend, and mix it back in; or you can just mash it like mashed potatoes until it’s the desired consistency.

Also, if using an immersion blender, don’t pull it out of the soup with the blades still going. I had quite the mess to clean up. Oops.

Back on track though… once it’s all mixed together, put it in a bowl, top with desired garnishes, and enjoy.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.