Cooking Light Baked Potato Soup
-4 baking potatoes (about 2 and 1/2 lbs.)
-2/3 cup all-purpose flour
-6 cups 2% milk
-1 cup reduced-fat shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese, divided (or regular if that is all you have)
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
-1 cup reduced fat sour cream (regular works too)
-3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
-6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash potatoes, pat dry. Pierce potatoes with a fork and bake at 400 for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes and coarsely mash.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour in a large Dutch oven (or just a large, deep saucepan - whatever you have!); gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup of the cheese, salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.
Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Ladle 1 and 1/2 cups soup into each bowl. Sprinkle each serving with desired amount of cheese, onions, and bacon (the recipe says 1 and 1/2 tsp. cheese, 1 and 1/2 tsp. onion, and 1 Tbsp. bacon). Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.
NOTE: I typically have a hard time waiting for the flour to finally thicken the milk. The last time I made this I replaced flour with cornstarch - used 1 T per each cup - worked fine and in about the 8 minutes the recipe says it "should" take!
