Potato Bacon Soup

Ingredients:

6 large russet potatoes, peeled and finely diced

1 large leek, green half discarded, white part cut into 1/2 inch rings

12 oz (1 package) bacon

32 oz chicken broth

1 cup water

1/2 Tablespoon granulated sea salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

In a large soup pot, fry off the bacon while chopping vegetables. Drain bacon and set aside. In bacon grease, sautee the chopped leaks until tender. Add in chicken broth, water, salt, pepper and potatoes. Boil until potatoes mash easily with a spoon.

Allow to cool until very warm, but not so hot as to quickly build steam. Pour soup into large bowl. Ladle out about 1 1/2 cups of the potatoes and leeks, draining juice back into the bowl. In a blender, puree the remaining soup in 3-4 batches until all remaining soup is blended. Pour into soup pot with whole potato and leek pieces.

Reheat over medium heat to desired temperature, stirring often. While reheating, crumble bacon and stir into soup.

Notes: I prefer to use the free range, low sodium boxed variety of chicken broth. For the bacon, I suggest hickory or mesquite smoked - stay away from the sweeter bacons with maple molasses. This is meant to be a more hearty dish than those types of bacon allow for.