GERMAN POTATO SOUP

Blustery days call for German Potato soup

Cold day, hot soup- formula we love. German potato soup gets to the heart of the concept. It's hearty, it's humble, it's heaven-sent on a blustery day. And hardly difficult to make.

Pieces of bacon (I adore bacon; we just don't use enough bacon any more) are browned and set aside. Then in it's tasty fat, all of the good soup's best ingredients are sauteed: the onion, the leek, the carrot, the parsley. To this cabbage is added for extra interest.

Then plenty of stock (use a high quality, low salt canned broth if you don't have buckets full of homemade stock in the freezer) and the potatoes make it soup.

A healthy sprinkling of caraway seeds and ten black pepper corns give it a German character.

It bubbles on your kitchen stove until the kitchen smells like you are a real homemaker and the potatoes are soft. Now's the time to serve it as is. Or, as the recipe directs, mash them with ½ cup of sour cream, and stir back into the pot for a creamy soup with more calories and fat, sure, but also more flavor.

A lot of us used to cook this way when we were younger, and some fat is unavoidable during cooking. We will try and reduce the fat in this recipe to a more manageable level than is called for in the above recipe, but still keep most all of the original flavor..

Ingredients

½ lb Bacon
1 med Onion, diced
2 med Leeks, trimmed and diced
3 med Carrots, diced
2 cup Cabbage, chopped
1/4 cup Parsley, fresh, chopped finely
6 cups Beef stock
2 lb Potatoes, diced
1 ea Bay leaf
10 ea Black pepper corns
1 tsp Caraway seeds
½ tsp Nutmeg, ground
½ cup sour cream, no fat version
1 tsp Canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cut the bacon into ½ inch squares and place in a large sauce pan or dutch oven. Slowly fry it over medium heat. When it is just short of being crisp, remove the bacon and drain on a paper towel. Remove all of the fat from the pan and pat the pan dry of all fat with a paper towel.

Add only 1 teaspoon of canola oil back to the pan. Add the onions, leeks, carrots, cabbage and parsley to the pan and cook over medium low heat until the onion wilts and becomes translucent. Add the beef stock and potatoes, raise the heat under the pan to high and bring to a boil. Add the bay leaf, pepper corns, caraway seeds, nutmeg and salt and pepper. When the pot boils, reduce the heat to just keep the pot boiling with the lid on and cook 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Using a slotted spoon, remove the potatoes and mash them with the no-fat sour cream.

Stir the bacon pieces into the pot. Add the mashed potatoes with the sour cream. Stir and serve hot immediately with a good hot crusty bread.

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