Crockpot Potato Soup Recipe - w/ Frozen Hash Browns, Bacon, Ham (2024)

FAQs

Should you peel potatoes for potato soup? ›

All types of potatoes can be used for potato soup. Russet potatoes will need to be peeled first, but white or red potatoes can be cooked with their skins for a more rustic potato soup. Leftover baked potatoes work great for this recipe as well.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top.

There's no need to boil potatoes before adding them to soup. Just be sure to add them with enough time to cook without overcooking the other soup ingredients. For diced potatoes, this is typically 10 to 15 minutes.

ANSWER: Waxy potatoes or those called boiling potatoes stand up well in soups and stews. These have thin skin and are high in moisture and low in starch. Potatoes that are low-starch and high-moisture hold together better. Yukon Gold potatoes are on the medium-starch side and will hold their shape in soups.

Add a slurry at the end.

A slurry is a mixture of flour and water, whisked together until smooth and added towards the end of cooking; it's a super-simple way to thicken any soup. For slow cooker soups, add your slurry with at least 30 minutes of cook time left so that the raw flour can cook and thicken the soup.

Why isn't my potato soup creamy? Most creamy soups require you to add dairy of some sort into it. If you're finding your soup is too thin adding milk, add in cream instead, or whole milk.

It might be tempting to add sour cream or softened cream cheese to help thicken the soup, but these dairy products only work in certain circ*mstances. You must blend cream cheese or sour cream, either with an immersion blender or a full-size blender, for it to thicken a soup.

Without thawing them beforehand, that moisture ends up in your dish and your hash browns turn out wet and mushy instead of crispy and crunchy. To prevent this, as Prepare and Nourish advises, you can also drain any excess liquid from the potatoes after they're defrosted.

What seasoning is good on hash browns? ›

Sprinkle shredded potatoes into hot butter in an even layer; season with cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, and black pepper. Cook potatoes until a brown crust forms on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Flip or stir and continue to cook until potatoes are browned and crusty all over, about 5 more minutes.

Just one golden rule to remember: you don't usually need to defrost your frozen potatoes before you cook them up again, so in most of the methods and recipes below, they're ready to use straight from frozen. All you'll need to get started is some space in your freezer, resealable bags and a little patience.

If you're reheating frozen hash browns, I suggest preheating your oven to 350 and covering the tray with foil. Pop this into your oven for about 20 minutes. Then, remove the foil and let them cook uncovered for another 5-7 minutes depending on how much crispiness you want.

Frozen hash browns are made from blanched potatoes, meaning the potatoes are grated and steamed before being formed into hash browns.

A: Hash Browns or French fries are usually good in the freezer for 4-8 months at zero degrees F. While still cold, if they are soft to the touch that means they have lost the crispy texture you'll expect of a quick frozen potato. If this occurred over a day or two, you should be fine to heat them up.

Eat the skin to capture all the russet potatoes nutrition. The potato skin has more nutrients than the interior of the potato. It has lots of fiber, about half of a medium potato's fiber is from the skin.

Aim for uniform pieces around ½ inch in size for even cooking. Sliced: If you prefer a more delicate texture, you can slice the potatoes into thin rounds. This works particularly well for creamy soups. Chunky: For a heartier soup with more texture, cut the potatoes into larger, irregular chunks.

The experts at the Idaho Potato Commission — people who know their potatoes — recommend boiling potatoes with the skin on. This keeps the nutrients inside the potato during the cooking process and adds a bit of flavor and texture to the finished product as well.

Should you peel potatoes before boiling? We prefer to leave the skins on, which prevents the potatoes from absorbing excess moisture. If you're putting them through a ricer, as we do in our best mashed potatoes recipe, the potato skins will be removed anyway.