Loaded Baked Potato Soup

This afternoon I have been working on adapting my Baked Potato soup recipe to accommodate the ingredients available at the Fruit of the Vine food shelf at my church, The Vineyard in Duluth, Mn. I am going to give some cooking demonstrations there on May 22nd to show the clients how to make some good stuff using what is available there. We are going to do 4 demos; the first at 9:30 which will be breakfast, featuring biscuits from scratch and sausage gravy to go with them. Next, at 10:30 we will make a snack of crostinis with some fun things on top and possibly flatbread pizzas. At 11:30 we will tackle a full roasted chicken dinner and show the various things you can do with a whole chicken. Among those ideas will be the dinner with rice pilaf, then what to do with the carcass. We will show how to make a great chicken stock for use in soups and almost anything you might need a stock for as well as using the leftover chicken meat for the soup, chicken salad, pot pies or just to snack on. we will also do a candied carrot recipe done in the oven for our vegetable side dish. At 12:30 we tackle dessert, creating a bread pudding with canned fruit and also my loaded baked potato soup. This post is dedicated to that soup. The recipe, which feeds 8-10 people:

3 Cups Instant Mashed Potato Flakes

4 Cups reconstituted non-fat dry milk

2 2/3 cups water

4 Tablespoons Butter

1 Cup chicken stock from home made, boullion cube or chicken base

1/2 Sweet Onion, grated

2 Slices Bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces

1 Pinch Salt

1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Ground White Pepper

1/2 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Chopped green onions and more cheese for garnish.

In a fry pan, cook the bacon until crisp and set aside on a plate lined with paper towels.

Grate the onion and melt the butter in a 3 1/2 qt saucepan. Add the onion and sweat over low heat for about 5-6 minutes until the onion is translucent.

Add the water, milk, stock, salt, pepper, cayenne, and simmer for 10-15 minutes over very low heat.

Add the potato flakes and stir them in, mixing thoroughly until fully combined.

Add the bacon, crumbling it as you add it.

Add the grated cheese and simmer for 3-4 minutes more over low heat.

Serve immediately and garnish with chopped green onions and more grated cheese.

As the title suggests, it tastes like a loaded baked potato

Bon Appetit!