Homemade Ham and Potato Soup Recipe

Many times the simplest

recipe

s end up being the most delicious and the same goes for this creamy ham and

potato

soup

that is super easy to make, we will get all the flavor possible out of it, it is delicious and I know you will do it. I love it and you know me in a traditional way. We need to start some preparation. Sounds good, let's cook and of course I'll start with an onion like I always do. I'm going to use a yellow onion, but you can substitute it. Pick a sweet or white onion, cut off the end, cut it in half, remove the outer shell and then we want to dice these into small cubes, make sure to dice it small because we want this to easily incorporate into our

soup

and not have any big chunks of onion. add it to a bowl and then we head straight to our stove where I have a rondo pot on low heat.

The next thing we're going to do is add some unsalted butter which you can substitute with bacon fat or even cooking some chopped bacon renders the fat and adds it back to the soup, that sounds pretty good. We'll stick with the butter for now. I'm going to add our chopped yellow onions. Take the time to caramelize them. It's going to take about 35 to 40 minutes to do it, so we'll come back every five or six minutes, give it a quick stir in the meantime, we'll prep a few things and when it's done, we'll actually come back. in 20 minutes to add some things to this and I always get asked why do you use it and what is even a rondo pot, well the rondo pot is essentially a shallow, wider pot, it's great when you want to caramelize things and cook things and braise things because you can spread them all over the pot if you have a more upright pot, sometimes you're just stacking and steaming those vegetables that you want to lay out and roast, that's why I use it, it's about the same size as a regular pot and I love it this one here is a paderno 1810.

I'll leave a link at the bottom so you can check it out for yourself, okay, this is what we do now. I want to add a leak to the mix and to the white. parts of the leeks are what's good to use, this one actually has quite a bit of white in there so I'm going to cut it quite high and then what I'm going to do is cut it in half now the outer shell is usually quite worn away so which I'm going to remove it from there and then cut them in half once again, if you cut this and notice a lot of green on the inside or towards the back where a lot of the green was in the leak, we're not going to use it because it becomes bitter and it becomes very difficult to cook, so I'll go almost all the way like this, that little bit of yellow in there is totally fine, then I'll add them to a strainer.

What we want to do is rinse them very well with cold water. Many times the leaks are very, very dirty. You'll see muddy mess in there so we just want to make sure it rinses off once it's done just set it aside. until we need it and now for some celery, we're going to consume quite a bit of it and what we want to do is cut it into medium sized cubes and for the garlic, well, you know, put it straight through a press, I want to use just a little bit. a little bit of carrot here for color, texture, a little bit of flavor, peel them quickly and then cut them into medium sized squares and now for the

potato

es, I have four baking potatoes that we're going to peel quickly and then what do you want to do with them. these are big cut them like this now to hold them up and make sure they don't turn brown we're just going to keep them submerged in cold water until we're ready to use them and the last part of the preparation is the most.

The important part is the ham, whether you use leftover ham or ham like this in a package or even deli ham, you should know that almost all the ham you buy at the store is fully cooked, especially the one you're probably using leftover ham. a During the holidays there is no reason to cook this to death, all we want to do is heat it past the 140 degree mark, which is like outside the danger zone where bacteria grows well, so with this ham there is a layer of fat on top. You can remove that part, you can leave it there, it adds a little flavor, but I don't know how much you like eating ham fat.

It's totally up to you, maybe some of you will, who knows, so what am I going to do. It is to take a few slices of this ham and then cut it into large cubes like with potatoes. You will need about four cups to make sure this soup is very filling. The next thing we will do is add it to a bowl. set it aside now go grab those leeks, it's been about 20 minutes of prep time perfectly, the onions look fantastic but we still have a bit more left, let's add the leeks right there, don't forget the garlic too.

We're on a pretty low heat, so I'm not worried about the garlic burning. We're going to mix this in and continue simmering for another 10 to 15 minutes. Caramelize them, brown them like this, now this part is completely done. Optional, but I always highly recommend it. Let's deglaze with a little white wine. I'm going to use chardonnay. You can use Savage Block or even Pinot Grigio. If you don't want to use wine, that's fine, just use a little bit of chicken broth, we'll cook it until it's evened out or almost gone at this point. Go ahead and take your other vegetables like carrots and celery and we're going to mix them up and cook them for about three or four minutes.

We're on low to medium heat, now I'm going to turn it up a little bit until they're slightly tender, so now that all the vegetables are there, let me quickly tell you that you don't have to use leeks since this

recipe

has few ingredients. I wanted to add that unique extra onion flavor that leeks add now, if you really love onions just double the amount of onions we used in this recipe now, the other thing is carrots, you don't have to use carrots, I don't see the I see them in many recipes, but I see them in some.

I just want more vegetables. You could also consider adding some root vegetables like parsnips or turnips, if you like. Well, now that you have it, this is what we do now. to add our drained and rinsed potatoes that we kept in the water and now immediately add some good chicken broth, you know me, of course, I have an amazing

homemade

chicken broth recipe that you should definitely use now that we are going to What we do is cream, add a little bit of heavy whipping cream, you can substitute half and half, but you would be missing out on a lot of flavor once it's there immediately and I mean, immediately slowly add a little bit of flour as you continue to whisk and then we're.

We're going to turn the heat up to high, we want to bring this to a boil, whisk it for another minute or two, make sure the flour is completely mixed in there so there aren't any chunks, that's definitely a different way to thicken a soup that you might have taught. In the past, when you used things like roux or slurry, you really had to whisk it in there to make sure there weren't any lumps. This process evenly distributes the flour and combines with the butter. Remember what we used when we caramelized onions. at the beginning to make a roux type mixture that makes it perfectly creamy, perfectly smooth, super good, okay, we are round and the third base, let's take this home after about 15 minutes from when we added the flour, it will be boiling, which help to.

It kind of activates that route type mixture, you can see how perfectly creamy and thick it is now what we are going to do to finish it is add our ham remember that it is already cooked we are just heating it up we want to season it combines very well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and with soups like this, I like to combine it with a little bit of Tabasco sauce and then last but not least a little bit of Worcestershire sauce, just some good natural salts and now I'm going to add some freshly chopped parsley, which We'll mix until combined, remember to season once, taste twice, taste it, season it, taste it again, maybe it needs a little more seasoning, you can always add what you can't take away now, let's get ready To eat this, you know, I love it Finish my soups with some fresh chopped greenery like parsley.

If you want to enhance the flavor you can add things like thyme and rosemary if you want, maybe just a tablespoon of each or you can combine. Those for great flavors will also keep in the refrigerator covered for up to five days or you can freeze it covered for up to six months. Be sure to defrost it in the refrigerator before reheating it and it's about these techniques even when applied to simple recipes like this one, they produce excellent results when you put them into practice, you will elevate your everyday cooking to another level my friends, and when it comes to food

homemade

from scratch, always delicious, always delicious, okay, let's add some. toppings for this when we plate it this is how to do it, generously add several large ladlefuls to a large bowl and I'm going to garnish with a little crème fraîche like the crème fraîche that I used in my ribs video and then at the end. but not least, I'm going to add some fresh chopped chives.

If you don't have scallions, you can use sliced ​​green onions and damn, let's get into this.