I love a warm bowl of homestyle potato soup, which is why I decided to give it an upgrade. I grew up eating a lot of meat and potato meals. I don’t think my mom ever missed a Sunday dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes (and NEVER the instant potatoes, I didn’t even know they existed growing up). So, basically, potatoes are one food I could never part with. One of my favorite dinner sides is Twice Baked Potatoes.
The inspiration for this soup came from those incredibly delicious Twice Baked Potatoes, those dreamy, creamy potatoes that are loaded with Cheddar cheese, sprinkled with browned crispy bacon and chopped green onions then they’re finished off with a generous drizzling of creamy Ranch dressing. It’s the perfect soup to serve for a winter party or Super Bowl game day! Yeah, all of that in soup form, and this Cheesy Bacon Ranch Potato soup better be good right? It’s my new favorite potato soup—I’m not sure if I’ll be able to eat the traditional plain old potato soup anymore. This stuff is just too flavorful and cheesily delicious to look back to that soup again =). This recipe may seem a little different, I didn’t make a roux to add the flour, rather I whisked it into the milk. I didn’t want to add butter because the mayonnaise already replaced the fat and creaminess of what butter would do. I also chose to use sharp cheddar cheese because in my opinion when you use sharp you can use less cheese (than if you were to use mild or medium) and therefore you’re adding fewer calories (don’t get me wrong this isn’t a low-calorie soup, I just try to lightly reduce calories where I can).
I decided to leave the carrot and celery out of this recipe so it’s more like a loaded or twice-baked potato but if you really wanted to you could add them. If you want even more of a ranch flavor you could drizzle the top of the soup with additional ranch, made according to the directions on the package. I hope you love this soup as much as I do and make it often this upcoming fall and winter season! There’s nothing like a perfect bowl of soup to warm a cold fall evening. Enjoy!
