Soup

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Cheddar, bacon and sour cream over soft potatoes. Kids eat it without negotiation.

Prep 10 min LOW 6–7 hours HIGH 3–4 hours Serves 8

Loaded Baked Potato Soup, finished and plated — Serving suggestion

A loaded baked potato is a complete thing already — potato, cheddar, bacon, sour cream, chive. Turning it into soup does not improve on it so much as make it feed eight people instead of one.

This is the cheapest recipe in the book to make. Three pounds of russets costs about four dollars, and the packet does everything else.

It is also the one that disappears fastest at a table with children at it. There is nothing in it to object to.

Why you'll love it

Cheapest dinner here.

Three pounds of potatoes and one packet.

No negotiation at the table.

Cheese and potatoes. Nobody argues.

Toppings make it a build-your-own.

Set out cheddar, bacon, sour cream and green onion and step back.

No meat to cook.

The bacon is a topping. This one is genuinely five minutes of work.

What's already in the packet

Cheddar cheese powderCream cheese powderWhole milk powderChicken bouillonSour cream powderOnionThickenerGarlicBlack pepperChive

Cheddar, cream cheese and sour cream are all in here as dry ingredients. No cans, no blocks, no cartons.

Choose your setting

Recommended

LOW · 6–7 hours

Low and slow gives collagen time to melt and flavors time to build. It is the setting this recipe was written for.

HIGH · 3–4 hours

For when you started late. It gets dinner done, but the texture is better on LOW.

Done when

Done when the potatoes crush easily against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon. There is no raw meat in this one — the bacon is cooked separately.

You'll Need

3 lbs Russet potatoes, diced
6 cups Water
1 packet Cook SLO Loaded Baked Potato Soup
8 oz Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Pick your protein

8 oz

Bacon, as a topping

2 cups

Diced ham, stirred in

—

None — vegetarian broth

Chicken 165°F, ground sausage 160°F, beef cubes 190°F, cooked ham 140°F

Add vegetables

Diced onion (fresh or frozen)Chopped celery (fresh or frozen)Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen)Broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)Cauliflower (fresh or frozen)Canned corn

Diced onion (fresh or frozen), chopped celery (fresh or frozen) and sliced carrots (fresh or frozen) at the start, on the bottom; cauliflower (fresh or frozen) in the last two hours; broccoli florets (fresh or frozen) in the last forty-five minutes; canned corn in the last thirty minutes.

When to add what

When	Add	Why
At the start, on the bottom	Diced onion (fresh or frozen)Chopped celery (fresh or frozen)Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen)	Root vegetables cook slower than meat. They belong closest to the heat, and they hold the meat up out of the liquid. Cut everything an inch and a half or larger — smaller pieces disintegrate.
Last two hours	Cauliflower (fresh or frozen)	Long enough to cook through, short enough to keep their shape.
Last 45 minutes	Broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)	This is the one people get wrong. Broccoli added at the start comes out grey and falls apart. Forty-five minutes keeps it bright and firm.
Canned corn and hominy, drained	Canned corn	Last 30 minutes. Fully cooked already, so anything longer turns it to mush.

Two ways to do this

If you're home

Follow the timing table above and add things when they're due.

About an hour is all you need

If you're out all day

Put in at the start as normal: diced onion (fresh or frozen), chopped celery (fresh or frozen) and sliced carrots (fresh or frozen). These need the full cook anyway.

Add cauliflower (fresh or frozen), broccoli florets (fresh or frozen) and canned corn when you walk in the door. Forty-five minutes to an hour on LOW is enough for all of it, and it will taste better than if it had cooked all day.

If you would rather not touch it at all, put everything in at the start and use frozen where you can. It will be softer than the timing above intends and the greens will lose their colour, but it will taste good and dinner is ready when you walk in.

Frozen is the better choice for a long day. Already cut, holds its shape better than fresh over eight or nine hours, and goes in straight from the bag with no thawing. Frozen diced onion and pepper strips remove the only real prep this recipe has.

Corn

Canned corn	Last 30 minutes	Drain first. It is fully cooked already, so it only needs heating — added early it goes to mush.
Canned fire-roasted corn	Last 30 minutes	Same timing. Worth seeking out for the smoky note, especially in chili and anything southwest.
Canned hominy	Last 30 minutes	Drain and rinse. Bigger and chewier than corn, and what turns a pork stew into posole.

Before anything goes in the pot

1
Whisk the packet into the water before it goes in
Do not sprinkle dry powder onto liquid in the pot. Put the 6 cups in a jug, add the packet, whisk until there are no lumps, then pour it over. Cheese and cream powders dissolve properly this way and the sauce comes out smooth instead of grainy.
2
Cook the bacon separately
Bacon in a slow cooker goes soft and grey. Crisp it in a pan or on a sheet in the oven while the pot finishes, then crumble it in at the end.

These happen outside the crock pot, before it's switched on.

Tonight's Plan

1
Put the diced potatoes in the crock pot.
Inch cubes. Uneven sizes means some are mush and some are still firm.
2
Pour in the 6 cups of whisked liquid and stir once.
You dissolved the packet in the water already, so there is no powder to work in and no risk of lumps. One stir to settle everything.
3
Put the lid on.
Cook the bacon at the end, not now.

When about 30 minutes are left

Creamy upgrade

Mash about a third of the potatoes against the side of the pot.

This is what makes it thick. Leave the rest whole for texture.

Stir well and ladle into bowls, then put the toppings out.

Bacon, cheddar, sour cream, green onion.

Stirring

Stir once at the halfway point

Cheese and cream powders settle against the hot crock wall and scorch into a brown ring. That ring then breaks up into the sauce and makes it grainy. One stir at the halfway point prevents it, and one is all you need — every lift of the lid costs about twenty minutes.

Swaps and add-ins

Add diced ham.

Two cups at the start turns it into a full meal rather than a starter.

Add broccoli.

Three cups in the last hour and it becomes broccoli cheddar potato.

Blend it smooth.

An immersion blender gives you a velvety soup. Half-blended is better than fully.

Make it a chowder.

Add a cup of corn in the last thirty minutes.

Tips for success

Mash a third, not all of it. Fully mashed is baby food. A third mashed thickens the broth and leaves something to chew.
Cut the potatoes evenly. Inch cubes. This matters more here than in any other recipe because potatoes are the whole dish.
Cook the bacon separately. Bacon in the crock pot goes soft and grey. Crisp it in a pan while the soup finishes.
Drop in a liner before anything else. Smooth it against the sides and fold the edges over the rim. When you're done, lift it out and throw it away — the crock never needs scrubbing.

Finish it right

Bacon, crisp and crumbled.

The single thing this soup is missing without it. Do not skip it.

Sliced green onion.

Sharp and raw against all that starch and cheese.

A spoon of cold sour cream.

Melting into the hot bowl. That temperature contrast is the point of a loaded potato.

Serve it over

In bowls with the toppings outWith crusty breadWith a green saladIn a bread bowl

Tomorrow night

It thickens overnight.

Stir in hot water or milk until it is back where you want it.

Potato cakes.

Mix the cold soup with an egg and flour, fry in patties until crisp.

Over a baked potato.

Which is either very funny or very good, depending on your mood.

Add ham and call it new.

Two cups of diced ham turns leftovers into a different soup.

Keeping it

Fridge

Airtight, up to 4 days

Freezer

Not recommended. Potatoes go grainy after freezing.

Reheating

Low with a splash of milk. It sets very firm when cold.

Questions people ask

Recipe card