Potato Bacon Poblano Soup

 This Potato Bacon Poblano Soup is my comfort food lately!

It's a hearty, filling soup that benefits from a hint of that sweet roasted Poblano flavor. 

Serve it with sandwiches or a crispy, cheesy tortilla and it will do all the comforting that you ask of it 🙂

How To Make Potato Bacon Poblano Soup

This isn't necessarily a dish that I came across during my time in Mexico, so please don't call the Authentic Police on me! 

But I come back to it regularly and it's the perfect example of Mexican cuisine influencing every single inch of my kitchen. 

The key, of course, is keeping some of these beauties around:

You'll need 3-4 Poblanos for this recipe.  These were 3 larger ones, but if you have smaller Poblanos then start with 4 of them.   Are Poblanos spicy?

As usual, you'll want to roast these first.  I typically put them in the oven (400F) for a half hour or so. 

This will enhance their flavor, and the delightful smell will make others think you are doing extraordinary things in the kitchen 🙂

As the Poblanos roast, chop up 6-7 slices of bacon and crisp it up over medium-high heat in your soup pot. 

Once the bacon is cooked you can remove it from the pan and set it aside for a moment. 

But we'll definitely use the leftover bacon drippings in the pan to cook a finely chopped onion. 

As the onion cooks you'll have time to chop up the potatoes. 

I used 2 Russet potatoes for this batch.  If you want to use Gold potatoes then consider using 3 of them. 

Once the onion is starting to brown, add 4 minced garlic cloves and cook briefly.   

Then we'll add a few tablespoons of flour as a thickener.   After adding the flour I like to give it a good stir and cook it for a minute or so -- this will ensure you don't get any flavor residue from the flour. 

Then we'll add the remaining ingredients:

the cubed potatoes
4 cups of stock  I used this veggie stock
1.5 teaspoons of salt
freshly cracked black pepper

Bring this up to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes or so.  This will give the potatoes plenty of time to cook. 

When the potatoes are getting close you can pull the Poblanos from the oven, de-stemming and de-seeding them. 

See those wrinkled bits of skin in the above pic? 

You can pull off and discard that skin, but don't worry about getting rid of every last piece as it won't affect the final flavor. 

Add the potato mixture, the Poblanos, and the cooked bacon to a blender and combine well.  You may have to combine in batches. 

You can optionally add cheese for increased savoriness.  I added a small handful of Queso Fresco.   What is Queso Fresco?

I like this soup best when the Poblanos work well with the potatoes and bacon -- if the Poblano flavor is too strong you'll lose the other players.  So for this batch I added 2 of the Poblanos, combined and tasted, then added another half Poblano to increase their presence a smidge. 

Note that the exact salt level will depend on which stock you're using.  I used this Better Vegetable Stock that has no sodium so I used about 1.5 teaspoons salt for this batch.  If using store-bought stock you won't need to add as much salt as I did. 

FYI I've also made this soup without stock and using water as the base, and it's still good!  The bacon fat gives you plenty of savoriness, so if you're debating whether to make it without stock....go for it!

Once blended you can add the soup back to the pan to bring it up to temp.  It's not going to win awards for its appearance, but the hearty, satisfying flavor keeps me coming back to it again and again.  

When it's back up to temp you can serve it up!

I garnished with:

crumbled Queso Fresco
the cooked bacon
freshly chopped cilantro
a final squeeze of lime

And it was just what the comfort doctor ordered 🙂

Okay, let me know if you have questions about this Potato Bacon Poblano Soup.  It's such a simple soup to make, and when everything is built from scratch it is comfort food at its best. 

If you find yourself drawn to the Poblano flavor, don't forget that there's a Roasted Poblano Soup on the site here that relies on a more prominent Poblano flavor. 

Enjoy!!

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Here's the latest recipe:  Easy Mexican Beans and Rice Soup.  Yum 🙂