Cheese & Potato Soup

[LarryW]

Made this for the Super-Bowl and it turned out great. Enjoy!

Cheese & Potato Soup

Ingredients:
2 pounds Velveeta Cheese
4 cups Mexican Cheese, shredded
1 Red Onion, sliced thin
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, chopped thin
2 cups potatoes, chopped into 1/2" chunks
1 cup shredded carrots
1 14oz can Ro-Tel tomatoes with chilies, medium to hot as desired
2 TBS Cholula hot sauce
1 cup Chicken stock
3 TBS Olive oil
2 TBS butter
1 qt Half & Half, fat-free is fine
Kosher salt & coarse ground pepper

Directions:
Place potatoes and carrots in pot of water and boil until fork tender. In soup pot place oil and butter, and sauté onion and celery over medium-low heat (basically make a kind of rue-roux). Add salt & pepper as desired. Add chicken stock and heat through. Do not boil. Add Ro-Tel. Cut up Velveeta into chunks and add to soup pot. Add half & half and heat through. Drain potatoes and carrots, add some half & half (or butter) and mash a little (just to smooth the texture some). Add potatoes and carrots to pot. When Velveeta is melted, add Mexican cheese and heat through. Re-season and add Cholula to taste. Serve in warm bowls. Serves 10 (give or take).

Note: Heat but do not boil. Keep stirring this regularly during the preparation so as not to burn the soup. Cheese will burn easily if unattended. Keep this in mind when you re-heat the leftovers, too.

[MasterOfMyFate]

I am going to buy the ingredients to try this TONIGHT (sans carrots, but with bacon added)

[Penn]

This recipe is a Fondue. Fondue’s have the potential to do some serious damage to your arteries.

[LarryW]

Thanks for your comments, Penn. You're right about the caution re: the richness of the recipe. Hadn't heard of a Fondue recipe, however. Guess it would work pretty well that way, too. I don't serve up more than about 3/4 of a cup as a serving. It is rich. Was thinking about using it as a topping for a baked potato. I have a bunch of it and will have to freeze it up starting tonight.

Adding the bacon sounds pretty good, too. I add the carrots for texture. I also make mashed potatoes by cooking them with baby carrots, a little bell pepper, and jalapenos, then mash 'em up with buttermilk. Pretty good.