No Small Potatoes

– by Tricia Suit

For St. Patrick’s Day, you probably had the brilliantly original idea to make potatoes.

Ingredients

Head of garlic

1/2 lb red potatoes

3 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

2 cups milk

1 cup vegetable broth

Lots of rosemary

Irish Cheddar

Salt and pepper to taste

You may have plans to boil or fry, bake or mash. But a great way to use a lot of potatoes – or any leftovers in the giant bag you bought – is to make soup.

Unlike many potato soup recipes, this one doesn’t use a blender. You aren’t creating a silky smooth liquid but more of a stew.

Take a whole head of garlic, poke holes in it with a fork and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap in aluminum foil and place in a 400° oven while you prepare the rest of the ingredients or about 30 minutes.

Rinse and chop the potatoes. You don’t need to peel them.

Melt the butter in your soup-making pot, adding a dash of dried rosemary; once melted add flour and stir until well mixed. Cook the roux for a few minutes, then gradually add the milk. Let the mixture thicken a bit before you add the next round of liquid, including the vegetable broth.

Once all milk and broth are in the pot, add the potatoes. Cover and let cook on low. At this point, the garlic should be finished. The roasted garlic will be soft, fragrant, and kind of mushy. Remove the garlic from each bulb, chop it a bit, and add it to the soup. If you have more garlic than you’d like to have in the soup, save it to use on bread. (This soup pairs well with crusty bread!)

At this point, add more rosemary – Lots and lots of rosemary. Potatoes and rosemary love each other, plus it gives you the requisite green you need to make this a proper Irish meal.

Let the soup cook until the potatoes are tender. They should fall apart when you stick them with a fork but not totally disintegrate.

When serving, top with grated (or a thin slice of) Irish Cheddar. It’s St. Patricks’ Day, after all.