Creamy Potato Soup

The weather here has been ridiculously cold these past few days - I've even seen snow flurries! Snow already!! I guess I'm not in Seattle anymore! With all this freezing going on, Rob and I decided it was time for one of our favorite cold-weather comfort foods: creamy potato soup. Bonus: I was able to use up a few more of the fresh herbs I have left over from making the Tofurky! Unfortunately, this wasn't the most photogenic batch...I almost didn't even post a picture. I used broth instead of water, unpeeled red potatoes, and red onion, which gave it sort of an odd color. Trust me, it tastes better than it looks. Here it is:



As usual, everything is approximate. Use your own tastes and judgement as your guide.

Ingredients:
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
1-2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1/2 bell pepper (I would recommend sweet bell pepper, but I just used the leftover green one I had in the fridge)
1/2 large onion, or one small onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2-1 head of cauliflower
2-5 potatoes (if you're using big potatoes use 2 or 3, if you're using little red potatoes like I did, use 4 or 5)
3 cups vegetable broth or water
1/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup or more of plain, unsweetened soymilk
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp margarine (optional)
few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2-1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

Instructions:
Rinse, peel, and scrub vegetables as you normally would. If you're using the big, brown potatoes with thick skins, go ahead and peel those. If you're using the little red potatoes, go ahead and just give them a scrub and leave the skins on - the skins are the best part!

Preheat a big soup pot to medium-medium high heat, and lightly coat with olive oil

Finely chop carrots and celery and add to heated pot, add a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir.

Finely chop onion, and add that next. Add another pinch of salt and pepper. Stir.

Mince garlic and finely chop bell pepper. Add them at the same time. Salt and pepper. Stir.

Dice potatoes into medium-small pieces, while keeping an eye on the veggies in the pot and stirring them occasionaly. Add the potatoes when they're all chopped.

Remove "leaves" from rosemary sprig and mince. Add along with all other seasonings. Don't bother removing the leaves from the thyme sprigs - they'll fall off on their own while cooking.

Stir in broth or water and corn. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Let simmer for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. I literally use the "thyme" as my timer! When the leaves fall off the thyme sprig, it's done!

Remove from heat.

Optional: Using a potato masher, mash everything up to make it thick and creamy.

Add soymilk, nutritional yeast, and margarine.

Serve it and love it!