This is the third soup that I have tried from the 50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker cookbook by Lynn Alley. This one is my new favorite.

This soup was creamy, rich and delicious. It tasted like it was full of fat and calories  – but it was not. The recipe serves 4 to 6. I figured the nutritional information off of 5 servings. There are 353 calories per serving (and a serving is sufficient for a meal), with 16.8 grams of protein.

The ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, chopped

2 celery ribs, sliced

1 1/2 pounds small red or white potatoes, skins on

6 cups water (I added vegetable bouillon cubes)

8 ounces blue cheese (your favorite kind)

4 cloves garlic

salt

freshly ground black pepper

chopped fresh rosemary, for garnishing

The soup was incredibly easy to put together. Before going to work, I chopped the onion and celery and sautéed it in the butter – ten minutes for the onions (until lightly browned) and then added the celery and cooked for two minutes longer.

I then put the onion and celery mix, together with the potatoes, in the crockpot, set it on low for four hours and left the house.

At lunch time, I came home to check on the crockpot. It made me a little nervous to leave the potatoes cooking without any water, but all was fine. There were a couple of bigger potatoes in the mix, so I let them cook for forty-five minutes longer.

I then added the water (and bouillon), blue cheese and garlic. Using my immersion blender, I pureed the ingredients so that the soup had texture and color (from the red potato skins). The recipe also suggests that you may want to mash the potatoes instead, for a more “rustic feel.”

I salted the soup to taste and set the crockpot on warm.

I went back to work (from home) for four hours, stirring the soup occasionally so it didn’t burn on the bottom.

When we were ready to eat, I ladled the soup into bowls and garnished with a little dollop of blue cheese, fresh rosemary and sliced green onions.

It was delicious. We ate it along with a piece of whole grain bread. I gave my husband the option of adding chicken to it, but he declined – he loved the taste as is, and it was very satisfying.

Enjoy!