Restaurant-Quality Baked Potato Soup

"I am a professional chef who works as a Child Nutritionist with the Homewood City Shcool System in Birmingham, Alabama, and am always looking for different things to go on a school lunch program. Us..." See moreually when I have soup on the menu, we make 35 gallons of soup and have some left over. When I made this soup for our highschool lunch, it was gone before half of the 1000+ students we serve each day had eaten. When the others arrived, I keept hearing, "Where's that great soup we've heard about?" When I can make that many teenagers happy with a soup, it must be SOME SOUP. Thanks for all the help! Melissa Dupree CNP"

"I've tried several baked potato soup recipes, but this is the best. Its names holds true- it tastes very much like the soup you can get in a restaurant (even better than some restaurants if you ask m..." See moree.) It was very thick, rich, and delicious! I changed the recipe a bit and was able to cut the fat SIGNIFICANTLY. I used 2 cans no-fat, low sodium chicken broth, skim milk instead of half and half, 1/3 cup store-bought bacon bits (added at the same time as the potato flakes so they're not crunchy), and 1 package (1 cup) 4-cheese instant mashed potato flakes. By using cheese mashed potato flakes you don't need to use the cheddar cheese. It still tastes very cheesey (in fact, I would not use more than one cup of the flakes) and you don't add any fat. I estimated that by making these alterations you cut the total fat by at least 70 grams. Even with the alterations, it was fantastic. For those of you with cornstarch issues, I found that it was easier to chill the water and mix the cornstarch in the water before adding both. No lumps, no pasty-ness!"

"This soup would be so much better without the instant mashed potatoes. It turned out way too thick and the most dominant flavor is the taste of "fake" potatoes. I won't be making this one again...." See more"