Potato Whacithribigoba soup

Potato soup.  It's probably my favorite soup on the planet.  Not surprising, since it's made with potatoes (duh!) and potatoes are my favorite food.  So, a few nights ago, after discovering that we really, really needed to go grocery shopping, I found that somehow I acquired about 5 cans of cream of potato soup in my pantry.  Huh.  No clue how I stockpiled that many up, but in a split second I decided that potato soup was the menu for the evening.

If you're like me (and let's face it, not many people are as odd as me), then you love potato soup, but heating up a can of cream of potato and calling it a meal is not real potato soup.  And, surprisingly, I realized that I had never made homemade potato soup before.  So I decided to give it a shot, in a free-for-all, make it up as you go along recipe.  And it was delicious.

Let me start out by saying, that when I notice we're out of almost everything, I routinely try to come up with recipes where I can use all the remaining perishable ingredients at once.  Or, at least the remaining ingredients that actually make sense to put in whatever I'm cooking.  Obviously throwing some apples in with my roux while making soup would be a bad idea.  (Trust me, it's a bad idea.)  So, I started on a mission of "What can I throw in here before it goes bad" soup.  (From here on called Whacithribigoba soup.)

I know, get to the cooking part already, right?  In my quest, I found a slightly over half full bag of baby carrots, around a quarter head of cauliflower, some slightly wilted looking green onions three medium-ish sized red potatoes (okay, for red potatoes they were pretty big), milk, around half a container of chive and onion sour cream, and bacon (BACON!!!!!).  Plus the cream of potato soup in my pantry.  Party on!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the recipe for some of the best semi-homemade potato soup ever created on the fly.  Delicious, and invented by me!

The Goods:
3-4 red potatoes, chopped
1(ish) bag baby carrots, chopped
1/4-1/2 head of cauliflower, chopped
2 cans cream of potato soup
2 soup cans worth of milk (approx. 2 cups)
1/2 an 8 oz. tub chive and onion cream cheese
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 pinch red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cooked bacon crumbles as desired
Chopped green onion, as desired
Shreded sharp cheddar cheese, as desired

The How:
In a large saucepan, cover potatoes, carrots, and cauliflower with fair amount of water.  Bring to boil; cover and reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer for 15 minutes or until veggies are tender.  Strain and set aside.

In saucepan over medium heat, mix in soup and milk.  Stir until combined, then stir in cream cheese, garlic, pepper flakes, and salt and pepper.  Continue cooking until mixture is at a simmer.  Add in vegetables, and cook until heated through and slightly bubbly.

Serve immediately, topped with bacon, cheese, and green onion if desired.  I thought this would also be good maybe with some tomato on top, too.

I didn't get a picture when I made this, unfortunately, but I did get a picture of the leftovers reheated for lunch the next day.  This made 4 giant bowls of soup.  I imagine it would serve 6 regular bowls.  Here's the finished product!

Oh, what a tasty soup it was!