Buttermilk Potato Soup with Roasted Garlic Potato Soup -this hearty, creamy, and tangy soup is easy to make and delicious.
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This buttermilk potato soup with roasted garlic is a family favourite. It's the perfect creamy and hearty soup on a cold day. The buttermilk adds a tangy taste, and the roasted garlic is mellow and adds a depth of flavor.
Last week for our family Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's house, everyone brought something to help out with the big meal. I was on appetizers. We wanted to serve something hot, but we knew the oven would be tied up with the turkey. I suggested a little soup, and paired it with cheese and crackers.
It was a real hit, and it did work out very well logistically. I made the soup and crackers the day before, and at the party all I had to do was reheat the soup on the stove and serve. The portion size was great too. It was just enough to warm you up, and still leave room for turkey. 😉
Potatoes
We used baking potatoes for our soup. Russet potatoes or any all purpose baking potatoes are high in starch and low in moisture. This makes them ideal for making thick and creamy soups. There's no thickener added to this soup, these potatoes are all you need to make it wonderfully thick, and creamy texture along with the buttermilk.
Buttermilk
This soup gets a wonderful bit of tang from the buttermilk. It adds some brightness to the potatoes which could be too heavy otherwise. It also adds a creaminess to the soup without being to thick, like heavy cream would be. Because buttermilk is low in fat and high in protein, it can curdle when it's heated. To avoid this add the buttermilk as the final step in the soup making process, after everything has been pureed, which will help the soup cool down slightly. Add the buttermilk slowly, and if necessary heat the whole soup more after adding, but do not boil the soup after adding the buttermilk.
Roasted Garlic
Roasting the garlic before adding it to this soup gives it a wonderful mellow flavor, that's slightly sweet. Although an entire bulb of garlic sounds like a lot for one pot of soup, roasting the garlic makes it so much less pungent that the whole head of garlic is the perfect amount. It's very easy to roast garlic, but it does take a little time. If you are in a rush, you can roast the garlic the night before and store it in the fridge to make preparing this soup faster.
Blending The Soup
Use an immersion blender, sometimes called a hand blender or stick blender to puree the soup to a smooth texture. Fully submerged the blender right into the soup pot, and blend until the soup is completely smooth. If you do like a little texture in your soup, you can remove about 1 cup of potato pieces before blending and then add them back in afterward to add a little bit of texture to finished soup.
We don't recommend using a food processor or blender to puree the soup because they're not meant for not liquids like this.
Storage
Store any leftover soup in airtight sealed container in the refrigerator.
Appetizer
We served this creamy soup in plastic shot glasses, just ladled in right before serving. This was a great way to serve a small portion. Each little soup is topped with small pieces of cheese straw. The cheese straws are a little spicy and worked really well with the soup. These are our favorite toppings because they pair so perfectly. Find the cheese straw recipe here. You could also pair with a cracker, or breadstick, or even a sliver of hot garlic bread would also work great..
For the cheese board, I made a batch of the salt and pepper homemade flat bread crackers -click here for the recipe. Along with the crackers we also added a few of our favourite cheeses -Swiss, spicy jalapeno havarti, brie, and some marble cheddar for the kids. I also included some fruit with grapes, and a nice honey crisp apple. There was also some dried apricots, and figs, and some cashews -a family favourite. I also added a jar of red pepper honey, so great with the cheese. Over all, it was fairly simple to put together, make the soup and homemade crackers the night before and then just heat up and serve for your party.
Main Dish
We love to also serve this easy soup recipe as a meal also along with some crusty bread. It's the perfect comfort food, and the best soup on a cold night. If you're serving a bowl of this it's great topped with some grated cheddar cheese, sliced green onions and crispy bacon bits. Try and it and it will be love at first bite.
Recipe
Buttermilk Potato Soup with Roasted Garlic
Ingredients
- 1 garlic bulb
- 4 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 baking potatoes peeled and cubed
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups buttermilk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Roast your garlic by cutting off the top to expose the tops of the bulbs, and pouring a little olive oil over top. Wrap up in tinfoil and bake at 350 for 30-45 min. until bulbs are soft. Set aside to cool. Once cool, squeeze the roasted bulbs out of their papery skins. Set aside.
- In a large dutch oven or pot, heat oil and sauté the chopped onion until softened.
- Add the cubed potatoes, bay leaf, chicken stock, and roasted garlic to the onions and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer at a medium heat for 15-20 min. until the potatoes are soft and fully cooked.
- Remove the bay leaf and puree the soup with an immersion blender.
- Add buttermilk, and season with salt and pepper, heat to serving temperature over a low heat to avoid the buttermilk curdling.
Nutrition
With homemade buttermilk soup with roasted garlic to enjoy, life really is a party!
More Soup Recipe Inspiration
You might also like our Tortellini and Italian Sausage Soup recipe here.
Also check out our Beef and Vegetable Soup here.
You might also enjoy Easy Homemade Tomato Soup recipe here.
Kim Griffin says
Great idea with the soup and crackers - and fantastic pics, I'm drooling over here lol
Jo-Anna says
What a great idea for an appetizer! You put together a beautiful spread!