Cheddar Potato Soup

Well, night two came and went. I made Cheesy Potato Soup from Robin Miller's Quick Fix Meals. I must admit right off the bat that I made a possibly major mistake right off the bat that might have ruined the soup.

Remember those tests in grade school where each question told you to do some kind of silly thing but at the top it said Read through all the questions first and somewhere near the bottom it said "don't do numbers 2-20?" Well this is one of those times when I would have failed that test.

The part I didn't read was the part where it says "Carefully, without burning yourself, puree the soup in a blender or food processor or use an immersion blender to do it right in the pot." This is an important piece because, while there are 3 choices of small appliances, I don't have any of them. Usually when I make a blender-required recipe, I just ask Joey to bring one of the appliances over. But he was already there and so was our friend, so I decided to just skip that step.

Big Mistake. Instead of pureeing, I mashed the potatoes and then mixed them with the broth. The soup tasted much like a baked potato. Joey and Nate added butter and more cheese to their soup--bacon would have been an excellent topper. The soup was missing something--I really expected it to be more creamy than baked potato-y. I challenge one of you to try it and puree it and tell me what it's really like!

Cheddar Potato Soup
Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
2 leeks (I didn't realize that 2 leeks was two stalks so I only bought one and then I used finely chopped red onion to fill the void of the other one)
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (she calls for roasted garlic chicken broth which I have seen in other recipes but NEVER in the store)
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped (I added this because I thought there would be no flavor, the garlic flavor did not come through at all)
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
chopped chives (optional)
crumbled bacon (optional)
extra cheese (optional)

Directions:
-Heat oil in a large saucepan over med. heat
-Add leeks and cook, stirring until soft and fragrant, add garlic and cook one minute more
-Add potatoes, chicken broth, bay leaves and bring to a boil
-Boil partially covered 8-10 min until potatoes are fork tender
-Remove bay leaves
-Puree soup in batches and return to pot
-Add cheese and stir until melted
-Add salt and pepper
-Serve hot with toppings