Leftover Mashed Potato Soup

Jon and I spent Easter dinner with our good friends Mr. and Mrs. Unnaturally Blonde.  This was the first holiday for both of us that we didn't spend with either our own parents or our in-laws and to be honest, it made me feel a little old.  We were the grown-ups and we were in charge of cooking and if the turkey got burned or if the casserole wasn't ready on time, we only had ourselves to blame. 

Jon and I (read: me) brought the mashed potatoes, cheesy broccoli casserole, a veggie platter, and rolls and I also baked mini cherry cheesecakes.  Mr. and Mrs. UB took care of the turkey (yes, we had turkey on Easter because neither myself nor Mrs. UB are very fond of ham), stuffing, corn, salad and peach pie with vanilla ice cream.  Needless to say, we had more than enough food for the four of us and there were plenty of leftovers.  Since I used about five pounds of potatoes to make the mashed potatoes, we had a whole bowl of those left.  I went in search of a good recipe today to use the rest of them up and came across a hearty soup recipe called, wait for it....Leftover Mashed Potato Soup. 

I gave it a shot tonight and it was definitely a big hit with Jon.  He had one big bowl of it, finished up the rest of mine, and I even caught him scraping the leftovers out of the pot when he thought I wasn't looking!  The soup was a great alternative to Shephard's Pie for using up leftover mashed potatoes and was really easy to make.  The other wonderful thing about it is that it uses ingredients that we normally keep around the house, like bacon, chicken broth, sour cream and shredded cheese.  I'll definitely make this one again.  Here's a picture of the finished product before I dug in!

Leftover Mashed Potato Soup (found here)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter or bacon drippings
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
• 14 1/2 ounces chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 2 cups prepared mashed potatoes(leftover is great)
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 2  scallions, finely chopped
• 3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 tablespoons cream or half-and-half

Directions

1.    Cook bacon, and set aside to crumble.

2.    In a large saucepan, cook onion in butter or dripping until softened.

3.    Add chopped mushrooms and cook until tender and onion is golden.

4.    Add chicken broth, salt, pepper, and paprika, stirring to mix.

5.    Blend in mashed potatoes, stirring until lumps are gone.

6.    Bring soup to a boil, then lower heat and add cheddar cheese, stirring until it is melted and smooth.

7.    Mix in scallions, crumbled bacon, sour cream, and cream/half and half, stirring to heated through but not boiling.