Creamy Ham and Potato Soup

This soup looks delicious on thegirlwhoateeverything.blogspot.com.  She adapted this recipe from Allrecipes.com where over 4500 people reviewed it and it received 5 stars.  Some warm, creamy soup is just what we needed on this chilly evening.  We had this for dinner tonight before we headed out into the cold for basketball practice.  

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes

1/3 cup diced celery

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup carrot, diced (optional)

1 cup diced cooked ham (buy a ham steak in the deli section)

3 1/4 chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste

5 tablespoons butter

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

Directions:

1.Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, carrot, ham and chicken broth in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the salt and pepper.

2.In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk so that lumps don't form and until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.

3.Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through.

4. Top with cheddar cheese, chives, and bacon if desired. Serve immediately.

 

5. Makes 6 servings 

Step 1:  All the veggies, ham and chicken stock are in the stockpot.

Step 2 and 3:  Here's the separate saucepan after the milk mixture had been combined and thickened.  I added this to the stockpot and heated it through.

The Results...
We all enjoyed this soup.  It was warm, creamy and hearty enough to serve for dinner with some fresh bread.  It also had a good balance of ham and potatoes.  I was given the approval to add this to our Family Favorites list.  I'm sure we'll be making this again this winter.