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Slow Cooker Potato Soup Recipe

This Slow Cooker Potato Soup Recipe is the ultimate comfort food, perfect for busy weeknight dinners.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup Recipe: the ultimate comfort food, perfect for busy weeknight dinners

It’s my goal this year to start using my crockpot more. Or, ahem, slow cooker. Did you know that Crock-Pot is a trademarked brand name and technically I am not allowed to label this recipe “crockpot potato soup” even though that is what people will likely search for?

Same with Super Bowl and Academy Awards . . . but I digress.

I don’t actually even have a crockpot. I have this Cuisinart 6.5 Programmable Slow Cooker that I LOVE. If you’re in the market for a slow cooker, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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I’ve been testing out some new recipes this week, and they’ve been hit or miss. I tried a slow cooker lasagna that was horrible. This slow cooker potato soup recipe, however, turned out beautifully! I can’t believe I’ve never made potato soup before.Funny story — one night last week, I had a dinner that didn’t finish on time and my son had to be at band practice so I decided to run by Wawa. If you don’t have Wawa in your area, there is no other store I can begin to compare it to. It’s a Philly thing, but it has started expending down the east coast. The best way to describe Wawa is a convenience store, but it’s like no other convenience store chain I’ve ever known. Wawas are clean and bright and they have good coffee and a decent deli. And you know we Philadelphians take our delis seriously.

Yes, we actually order food there. We don’t make it a habit because of course the food isn’t particularly high quality, but it’s dependable and tasty and fairly fresh, and there is one on every street corner so it’s super convenient when you’re in a time crunch. Wawa is my version of fast food because I haven’t darkened the door of a fast food chain other than Chick-Fil-A in years. (Thank goodness there’s not a Chick-Fil-A on every street corner; I’d be a blimp!)

Anyway… we stopped into Wawa one chilly night for dinner and my kids ordered hoagies. I was starving and had nothing at home so I started looking around for something to order for myself. Of course, sandwiches are out of the question for my gluten-free diet, but I noticed a list of soups on the wall. On an impulse, I ordered their potato soup.

I expect there is some gluten in that soup but nothing like the gluten in a sandwich, and I was starving, it was cold outside, and it sounded good to me. (Don’t judge.)

Long story longer, the soup was FANTASTIC, and that is when I decided that I MUST find a potato soup recipe to make at home. To make my life even easier, I decided to try a slow cooker version.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup Recipe: the ultimate comfort food, perfect for busy weeknight dinners

Everyone at the dinner table lapped up this soup like it was candy. It was a total hit, and it makes great leftovers too.

This soup is hearty and comforting, although I suppose it does make for quite a carbalicious dinner. My attempts to stick to a paleo/primal lifestyle are thwarted once again!!! But I promise you, this soup is WORTH it.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup
Recipe Type: Soup
Author: Jo-Lynne Shane
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 10 servings
This Slow Cooker Potato Soup is the ultimate comfort food, perfect for busy weeknight dinners.
Ingredients
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp fresh minced thyme
  • 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (I used gluten-free)
  • 4 cups chicken stock (homemade, if you have it)
  • 6 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded plus extra for topping
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 lb bacon
  • 1 bunch scallions, sliced
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, add the onion and cook slowly over medium-low heat until soft and lightly browned. Add garlic and thyme and sauté for another minute or two.
  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
  3. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of chicken stock, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan, then transfer to a slow cooker.
  4. Add the rest of the broth and potatoes to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender (4-6 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high).
  5. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to eat the soup, lay the bacon out on a 13×9-inch baking sheet and cook it in a 400-degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until crispy. Drain on paper towels and then chop it up and place in a serving bowl to use as topping for the soup.
  6. While the bacon is cooking, use a potato masher to mash potatoes until mostly smooth. You can use a stick blender if you prefer a smoother consistency.
  7. Stir in the shredded cheddar and cream, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Serve the potato soup topped with cheese, bacon and scallions.

 

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29 Responses

  1. The only problem with wawa is that they don’t have a drive-through! When you have a kid in a carseat that makes other fast food WAY more convenient. It may be a good thing though, because I have a feeling we’d eat a lot more wawa if we could stop without me having to get her out!

    The recipe looks really good. I haven’t tried making soup in my slow cooker yet. I haven’t been able to convince myself it’s that much easier when you still have to cook things on the stove first. And the worst part of making potato soup is cutting up the potatoes, lol. I’ve got a potato corn chowder on my pinterest though that I’ve made a few times this winter already. We all really like it, and I like that hubby and baby are getting some veggies even when I’m not home. 🙂

    1. I hear ya, I usually avoid crockpot recipes that require that much prep. But it’s really nice on the nights when the kids have late afternoon activities that keep me away from home. I can do all my prep and chopping and put this in the crockpot around 3:00, and then I do all my carting the kids around, and dinner’s ready (and already mostly cleaned up) by 6:00. 🙂

  2. This looks delicious! I love a thick hearty potato soup. It’s funny you mentioned the Crockpot is a trademark. Whenever I type that word in, it shows up as a spelling mistake, and the first suggested correction is crackpot! HA!

    We don’t have a Wawa in Wisconsin, but they are popping up all over the Orlando area, so whenever we’re down there, my husband MUST go there for a breakfast sandwich. It’s so funny how he gets so excited about going to a gas station.

    Have a great week!

  3. OMG this is perfect for me today! I am in Central PA and we have ice and sleet and a no school day and I usually do grocery shopping on Monday mornings. So I just was thinking before I saw your post on what should I thaw out and I’m not feeling very creative and then your post! I have everything in stock except the scallions so I will make do! Thank you for sharing!!

  4. We LOVE potato soup in my house! It is in our regular dinner rotation in the winter. I wanted to share a short cut that I use which is very helpful in getting dinner in short amount of time…use frozen hashbrowns (chunks, Southern style) instead of potatoes. It cuts about 30 minutes off the prep time and is delicious!

  5. Since I’m home( again for the third snow day in a row), I decided to give this recipe a try. I just put it in the crockpot, and I’ll let you know how it turns out!

  6. I can’t wait to try & make your recipe! My kids love Potato Soup. Also, I am going to TOTALLY try the Wawa version too next time I am in there and they have it available. I’m not shocked it was good – we actually get food from Wawa all the time. I know! But besides the hoagies, everything else is always pretty decent. My kids actually got the scrambled eggs & bacon breakfast bowl when we were road tripping last week and loved it.

  7. The soup looks delicious! I’m from Philadelphia and i agree with you about WAWA the sandwiches and breakfast food are really good and don’t forget about the Philadelphia pretzels and Tasty Kakes i have to get me some every time i visit Philadelphia. My niece lived almost next door to WAWA and we use to go there all the time.

    1. Oh yes, I miss pretzels and tastykakes since going gluten free. When I met my husband and he introduced me to Tastykakes, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven, lol!!! (He’s from here; I’m not.)

  8. Mmmm this looks amazing! Ya know I never really thought about the fact that Crockpot is a brand name, it’s just used so interchangeably as the name of the cooker. I guess like chapstick haha.

    Thanks for sharing!
    Brooke
    pumps and push-ups

  9. I am so making this tomorrow night for dinner. I have a bad cold and no energy by the time it’s time to make dinner, so this will be perfect. Thank you!! PS My family ADORED your pot roast recipe from last week. My husband actually licked his plate. Even my most picky child gobbled it up. You saved dinner, again!!

  10. This looks so good. And right now, with the freezing temperatures, I would love to warm up with a warm bowl of it–yum!
    Thanks for sharing with us at Motivation Monday 🙂

  11. I love my Crockpot and I can actually say that because it is actually the Crockpot brand. LOL. And I love potato soup. I’m going to try this out as I’ve never made it that way before either.

  12. Thanks for the recipe. It looks delicious and just perfect for the cold weather days. I love WAWAS, the closest one to me being in Lancaster. I had to laugh when you said hoagies though– my husband and boys insist they are subs, but not where I grew up:)

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