Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Soup doesn't need to be boring with all the yummy toppings of this Delicious Loaded Baked Potato Soup

With a busy week ahead, I just knew I needed to be prepared with some food to grab and reheat in the fridge.

One of the perfect kind of dishes for that is of course soup, and now we are into September and the weather is cooling, I am beginning to want salad less, and instead, soup is on the menu a lot more.

To be fair, I still eat soup in the summer, the warm weather does put me off, as there is something comforting and filling about soup, don't you think.

This weekend we did our mammoth monthly shop at Costco, and as well as that I popped in the local fruit and veg market. They always have really great deals on fruit and vegetables, sometimes it means it needs to be used quickly to prevent spoiling, but when I am planning a soup making day, it is perfect.

Plus with vegetables, pretty much anything you are not going to use, can be chopped up and placed in freezer bags and frozen, and then you have it on hand when you need it.

So once all the groceries were put away and the kids had gone to bed, I got busy in the kitchen making some soup, all at 9 pm at night!!.

Now for some, you might think that is pretty crazy, but I wanted the soups all made, so it was just a case of heating it up the next day.

I knew I was making my delicious Split Pea and Bacon Soup because it is filling and hearty and it's been ages since I made it.

The other soup I was undecided on. I have been meaning to have a go at a low fat loaded baked potato soup. Because well potato anything is amazing, right?

I love soups that have lots of little toppings because it then doesn't feel like just a plain ole bowl of soup and becomes more of a meal, so Loaded Baked Potato Soup is perfect for that.

You basically treat the soup like a jacket potato. So for toppings, cheddar, ham (or bacon) and spring onions just seemed perfect.

A traditional Loaded Potato Soup generally has lots of cream, butter, and flour, but as I was trying to keep the calories lower on this, I opted for just stock because the potatoes thicken up the stock nicely and then some light cream cheese to make it creamy.

To blend the soup, I use one of the cup blenders of my Nutri Ninja Blender with Auto IQ. This blender is amazing. The auto IQ technology feature, mean it blends to a set pattern depending on what it is you are making. There is also an optional add-on for a food processor bowl, which is perfect for chopping and grating vegetables. Sauces and soups are literally so smooth, once complete in this amazing kitchen gadget.

Don't worry though, you don't need a fancy high-tech blender like mine above, a good old immersion stick blender like the Koölle Electric Powerful 3-in-1 800 Watt Hand Stick Blender or a similar make will do the job too.

For the potatoes, I recommend using your favourite variety of potatoes, I used Yukon golds, which are a yellow potato with a delicious buttery flavour, that is perfect for this soup.

To save time, instead of baking these in the oven, I just pierce with a fork and add to the microwave for approx 8 mins, till they are soft, and then you can allow to cool, scoop the potato out of the skins and add to the soup.

It means the whole soup is super quick to make, compared to some soups. If you don't have a microwave, then you can still make this soup, just bake the potatoes in the oven as normal.

Heating up the next day and adding my toppings, this was a perfect lunch time meal, really filling and tasted amazing. I was really pleased with how well it turned out.

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