Sunday Soup #13: Slow Cooker Roasted Garlic Baked Potato Soup

This recipe came from: http://creolecontessa.com/2015/12/slow-cooker-roasted-garlic-baked-potato-soup/

*Pic 1 - Picture from http://creolecontessa.com/2015/12/slow-cooker-roasted-garlic-baked-potato-soup/

My Variations from Recipe as Written: I doubled the recipe and likely used a few extra cloves of roasted garlic than the recipe called for; my family loves garlic! I did not use low-sodium chicken broth. I added crumbled bacon to the list of available garnishes.

General Thoughts: After being gone for a few weeks, I was getting twitchy to make some soup... And, since we were visiting my parents, and my Sister and Mom both really like to cook, we decided to do Sunday Soup together... And make two soups! This was the first one...

The prep on this soup was pretty darn easy... The hardest part was roasting the garlic (thanks Mom)! And, I am an onion wuss, so my Sister fixed the chopped veggies right up, and we were in business...

This soup was extremely hearty, and very thick... The combination of the potatoes and the cheese added during the last part of the cooking process served to make the soup very chowder-like, as opposed to any pretense it had of being a brothy soup.  Some of the people that tried it at our gathering found it to be TOO thick, but I found it to be perfectly creamy.

Even though I used the regular (rather than low-sodium) stock, the soup turned out to be a bit bland.  Several of our diners added salt and pepper to their bowls, and I had to crank mine up with some Frank's RedHot.  I was also a little worried that it might come out too garlicky (even for us), but the garlic, while definitely noticeable, was subtle enough to blend with the other flavors rather than overpower them.

Our biggest take-away was that the garnishes for this soup are a MUST! As I mentioned, as a star all by itself, this soup was a little lackluster, but it turned out to be a terrific base for variation... I added bacon, cheese, sour cream, chives, and hot sauce, and came out with a bowl of wonderful potato soup that I'd be happy to eat again and again.

*Pics 2 & 3 - Pictures from when we made it

This was a solid selection, but there are probably better potato soup recipes out there (like my wife's) if you are looking for something special. I would, however, make it again if someone specifically asked for it.

Polling the Fam: It is always great to cook for a crowd because it means many different perspectives. My wife and oldest son were the least impressed, giving it middling marks, and thinking it needed more garlic ("I've had much better potato soup, but this one was okay").  My Mom and Dad liked it overall, saying it had good flavor, but they both thought it was too thick for their tastes. My Sister and I both really liked it and thought, although we'd try to find a way to make the flavors a bit stronger, we'd both make it again.

Verdict: It was okay. (3 stars)