Dairy Free Potato Soup

 

Potato soup was one of many meals my husband (John) thought he would have to say good-bye to forever. So, we were intrigued when we saw a recipe for potato soup on the side of an almond milk container. I'm always looking for new recipes and John is always ready to be the official taste tester... as long as it's dairy free. But, I thought I would put a spin on it and make it a little more like the traditional style of creamy potato soup. So, I didn't completely follow the recipe. For starters, I used red and golden potatoes for an added complexity. Also, the skin is thin enough on these potatoes that I didn't have to worry about peeling them.  

I started by parboiling the potatoes. After they slightly softened, I removed them from the stove, drained them, and set them aside. Also, I cut them into bite size pieces. Too big makes them difficult to eat and too small would make them mushy and dissolve. 

  

After draining the potatoes, I wiped down my pot and sauteed a diced onion in some non-dairy butter. Once my onions looked translucent, I added a little flour to make a rue. 

 

At this point, the butter, onions, and toasted flour started making my mouth water. The smell was heavenly. I had to use a low heat and keep stirring otherwise the rue would stick to the bottom of the pan. This process took about 5 to 7 minutes.  

After my flour was nicely toasted, I slowly added the almond milk. This required constant stirring while the milk incorporated with the flour. I used two boxes of almond milk and one box of vegetable broth. I added the cooked potatoes back into the pot once my soup began to simmer. 

 

The potatoes were already fully cooked but I wanted to incorporate the potatoes with the soup so all the flavors could begin to blend. I let it simmer for about 20 minutes. This pot of potato soup smelled like the real deal. I was imagining myself dipping the edge of cracker into the thick creamy broth. I did a couple of taste test, but the smell an the flavors weren't quite matching up. It tasted great but not what my mind had created it to be. 

I dressed it up just like a traditional bowl of potato soup. I used bacon bits and some chives that I had chopped up while waiting for the soup to be done. John had been in and out of the kitchen once the the aromas began to fill the house. He was ready for a delicious bowl of potato soup. After we were about half way though with our almond milk potato soup, we decided that it most definitely did not like traditional potato soup. It had a completely different flavor, but we were very pleased. We decided that we'd keep this recipe on hand. It tasted great and it was dairy-free. 

photo credit for header: https://pxhere.com/it/photo/607330