Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Loaded Baked Potato Soup is a twist on the favorite side dish. It's creamy, smooth, cheesy, quick to make, and of course, comforting on a cold day.

There are a handful of soups I try to make every year before the winter passes. Chicken noodle soup (obviously), French Onion soup (a must), Stracciatella (childhood favorite), and this new one that I’ve come to love. In my opinion, the best soups taste great and fill you up.

This take on a loaded baked potato is a fun way to have the same flavor you enjoy as a side dish – but in a different form. I love dishes that are a play on what flavors and forms they usually are!

Because this soup has potatoes in it, it is filling! Often it's enough as a main course for us. It also comes together in under 30 minutes, which it’s really nice to have in your back pocket since some soups need all day.

This Loaded Baked Potato Soup is a creamy soup, which means that the base of it is cream and not broth. Creamy soups are filling, but they’re usually loaded with more fat and calories because they rely heavily on butter and heavy cream.

In previous posts, I’ve explained the connection between calories and macros. But to simplify here – protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram while fats have 9 calories per gram. So, if we look at the nutrition info for a high-fat dish, it's often going to have correlating high calories. And yes, this is one reason fat is often misunderstood as “bad for you”. But just as we need proteins and carbs, we also need fats; all in moderation.

My goal when revamping this dish was to rebalance the macros out so that its less high in fat and thus lower in calories. The most obvious swap being that the heavy cream had to go. Milk and broth combined are often a great substitute.

You can really use this formula for making many cream-based soups. Some notes and tips on the other ingredients in the dish:

1. American cheese - it has a bad rap because it’s processed cheese. But I’m going on record saying that it has its place and need and there are some really decent ones out there now. For one, it melts really well. And it's creamy. Just don’t buy the prepackaged one’s
2. Potatoes – russets are really creamy potatoes and do really well as the main star of the soup! This recipe calls for just the inside of the potato and the shortcut is that they soften in the microwave. You can just as well cook them in the oven if you’d like. One tip I like is to save the skins after scraping the inside potato out and make crispy potato skins with them!
3. Bacon – look for one that’s 35-70 calories per slice to reduce the fat content and calories even more
4. Sour cream & chives – don’t skip these toppings that make the soup taste truly like a loaded baked potato!

AS ALWAYS, IF YOU MAKE THIS – PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!

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Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 russet potatoes
• 3 tbsp whipped butter
• ½ cup chopped onion
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• Pepper to taste
• 3 cups milk
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 8 slices American cheese
• 6 slices of bacon
• ¼ cup minced chives
• ⅓ cup sour cream
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• Cracked black pepper

Instructions

1. Prick potatoes with a fork all over. Microwave for 4-8 minutes or until tender. Cut open and set aside to cool.
2. In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add in onion and sauté until translucent.
3. Stir in flour, thyme, and pepper. Slowly whisk in milk and broth until smooth. Cook and stir about 5 minutes on medium heat until it starts to bubble and thicken.
4. In a medium bowl, scrape out the insides of the potatoes and mix well into the soup, slightly mashing the potatoes as needed.
5. Once the soup is well combined, break apart the cheese slices and add to the pot. Keep stirring until the cheese is fully melted.
6. Crisp bacon on a paper towel lined plate in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Divide the soup between bowls, top with cheddar cheese, sour cream, crumbled bacon, chives, and cracked black pepper.

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