Bacon and Potato Soup

Quick, simple, cheap and tasty

This will serve four but it scales up and down easily according to how hungry you are, how many it has to feed and what you have to hand.

Bacon – how much is up to you, I would suggest at least a slice or a couple of rashers per person. Smoked bacon recommended. Chopping up part of a raw bacon/gammon joint into small pieces can be more economical and tasty than sliced bacon. Lardons work well. Pieces of leftover roast gammon or bacon is fine too, but doesn’t flavour it quite so well. Wiltshire cured bacon doesn’t seem to work particularly well though.

New potatoes – again, depends how filling a soup you want, about 1-2 per person. The more you add, unsurprisingly the chunkier or thicker the soup. You can use up cold ones, which is quicker to make but the flavour is much better if they go in raw, as they soak up the soup flavour.

Onion finely chopped – at least 1 medium or large, or a couple of small

Milk – about a pint.

Parsley – dried or fresh

Black pepper

Chop the bacon into bite size pieces and put in pan. Start off on a gentle heat to release some of the fat so no oil is needed. Cook for a couple of minutes stirring occasionally.

Add the onion and continue to cook until the onion is soft (about 2-3 minutes).

Add milk and chopped potatoes, and parsley and black pepper to taste. Heat and then simmer gently until potatoes are soft (about 10 minutes if raw used, depending on size of pieces) stirring occasionally. (If you like your soup thicker, bash the potatoes up a bit when stirring.)

(If using leftover gammon, start by softening onions in a little oil, then add it with the potatoes)

A handful of frozen sweetcorn can be added when it’s simmering if you want to include some veg.


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