Baked Potato Soup

It's a cold day (out of nowhere), and we're out of soup. I had baked off some potatoes for something else, and had a few leftover. Hmm. Baked potato soup it is!

4 medium sized Idaho Russet Burbank Potatoes, baked
1 medium onion, diced finely
1 TB oil (canola, vegetable, peanut, whatever)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
2 TB coconut milk
4 - 6 cups of water (just enough to cover the potatoes)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Start in a pot with the onions and oil. When the onions are just cooked through, add the baked potato. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes in the pot, and toss the mashed potatoes with the onions and oil. Pour in the coconut milk, curry powder, and just enough water to cover the potatoes. (Alternately, you could dice up the baked potatoes, and you won't have to bother with a potato masher.) Let the water come up to a full rolling boil, and drop it down to a simmer. Let it cook for 10 minutes or so, until the potatoes are really really tender. Turn off the heat, and blend it down to a smooth puree with a stick blender.

Sprinkle on salt and black pepper to your taste (I like a lot of pepper and a good hit of salt).

For whatever reason, I'm eating a bowl full right now, and it's warming me from my toes to the top of my head. Something about a bowl of piping hot soup feels like a warm fuzzy flannel blanket when it's cold out. And since this is a smooth one, I can easily pop it into a to-go coffee containers, and drink it, and feel it energising me from the inside.

And the cool thing is that it's such a simple (yet tasty) recipe.

If you wanted, you could also stir in some nutritional yeast and give it a different dimension. If you had any thyme or rosemary, it would totally bring it up by leaps and bounds. And, think of the other possibilities: it serves as an excellent base for other vegetables. That way, you can have a creamy vegetable soup without all the calories of throwing in loads and loads of cream.

Like, if you steamed off some broccoli, and pureed it with the soup, you'd have a baked potato with broccoli soup (which, come to think of it, sounds pretty awesome. I'll be back in a few minutes.), which you can garnish with a bit of a broccoli floret. A bit of chopped sundried tomato, and you'll have little tangy, tart little bursts going off. A touch of red chile, and you'll be warmed up way faster. Roasted red peppers would be great for a creamy red pepper soup.

The possibilities are endless, and easy to execute.