Ham & Potato Soup

Ham & Potato Soup

What gets my Irish eyes smiling? Yummy food!  

On cool March days, I love a good bowl of soup.  Since it's “clover season,” I'm pulling out all our favorite St. Patty's Day recipes.

Last year I introduced you to our family's favorite green recipes on my “Happy Clover Day” post.  & I just recently wrote about our beloved Lucky Charms Treats — which I just bought the ingredients for & my kids are salivating over the box I put in our pantry.  🙂

But what do we eat for our special dinner on this wonderful holiday?  Well, we eat one of our favorite soups: Ham & Potato Soup!  Really we eat it year round, but it usually makes it's way to our table on St. Patrick's Day evening.  Coupled with some yummy Irish soda bread, our meal is complete. 

Hope you & your family love it as much as we do! It is so delicious!

Ham & Potato Soup

Yield: 8    Category: Dinner    Cuisine: Irish

Description

This is our traditional St. Patrick's Day meal. We couple it with some Irish soda bread to make it even more authentic. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

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Ingredients

• 6 cups peeled and diced potatoes, red or white
• 1 – 2 cups celery
• 1/3 of an onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 – 2 cups diced, cooked ham (or cooked chicken if you want to change things up)
• 4 1/2 cups of water
• 2+ Tbsp. chicken bouillon (I use Better Than Bouillon since it doesn't have MSG added)
• 3/4 tsp. salt, or to taste
• 1 tsp. pepper, or to taste
• 6 Tbsp. butter
• 6+ Tbsp. flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• Optional: Chop some fresh parsley to sprinkle on top!

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Instructions

1. Combine potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water into a large pot. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Cook until potatoes are tender. This time will depend on how large or small your potatoes were diced.
2. Stir in chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
3. In a separate pan, melt butter over medium-low heat.
4. Add flour to a jar with 1/2 cup of the milk. Shake vigorously until totally combined. *This is my secret to lump-less soup.
5. Add flour-milk to butter along with the remaining milk. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens. Use a whisk to make sure no lumps snuck into your pan. It usually thickens in 4-5 minutes.
6. Stir mixture into your large pot. Cook until the soup is nice and hot.
7. This is the point where I add more salt or pepper if needed. It's truly to taste.
8. Serve immediately! & Enjoy!!

Notes

I should point out that although this recipe is great with ham I've recently thrown in some left-over chicken — results were amazing! So, I highly recommend trying it with ham or chicken!!

**Disclaimer #1: I'm only about 1/8 Irish, maybe 1/16 (it depends on which grandparent your ask).  My married name is Clover, but I've actually got more Irish in me than my hubby.  I'm your typical All-American “mut” when it comes to my heritage.  I'm my own melting pot.  🙂

**Disclaimer #2: I eat soup every season!  I don't need cold weather.  I'm one of those weird people who will eat soup in the summer.