Recipe Wednesday:{Irish Potato Soup In A Jar}

Just a little food for thought...

 Potatoes came to Ireland by way of South America, and by 1688, they had become a staple of the Irish diet. The Irish refer to potatoes as"praties." 

According to food experts, a diet of potatoes and milk will supply all the nutrients the human body needs. The potato has long been considered a staple for the poor. Throughout their often difficult history, impoverished Irish people have relied heavily upon it for subsistence. Potatoes contain plentiful carbohydrates and some protein, calcium, and niacin. They are easy to grow and store. {source and to learn more} 


Today in honor of the potato, the Irish and St. Patrick's Day, we bring you our version of the traditional Irish Potato and Leek Soup. Well, maybe we should rephrase that to read, "  almost traditional Irish Potato, Leek and Panchetta " soup. We had to put our little spin on it of course!

 Irish Potato, Leek & Panchetta Soup In A Jar Recipe
Adapted from Food Ireland.com


3 pounds boiling potatoes, peeled and diced into same size cubes
1 pound leeks, washed and sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, sliced
5 cups chicken stock or broth
2 1/2 cups of milk
4 tablespoons butter
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt & pepper
1 cup chopped small uncooked panchetta {found a small package at Trader Joe's}
3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup finely grated Irish cheese {Trader Joe's has a good Irish white cheddar with 1/2 the fat}
1 small spring of rosemary

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan.

Add the vegetables and panchetta cover, and cook for 5 7 minutes, stirring freguently.
Add the stock or broth, 1/2 cup of milk, the bay leaf, parsley, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper.
Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until the vegetables are tender, 25 to 30 minutes.

Discard the bay leaf and rosemary stem, and let the soup cool for 10 - 15 minutes.

Transfer to a blender or food processor in batches and process until smooth. {we only smoothed out half of the soup and left the remainder chunky}.

Heat the puree and unprossessed soup in a saucepan over medium heat and stir in cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. If the soup it too thick for your liking, you can add some milk or cream to thin it out some. Check for seasoning. Serve. Makes 8 servings.

To make this soup Vegan: eliminate the Panchetta, butter, cheese, chicken stock and milk. For substitions use, rice milk, vegan spread like Earth Balance, vegetable stock and Vegan cheese if desired.

We love to serve anything on a stick or in a jar. It is just so unexpected, interesting and fun. We found these half pint Mason jars at Walmart recently. They come four in a pack or about $4.50.

To serve the soup in a jar we carefully ladled slightly cooled soup into the jars almost to the top, but leaving a little space.

         Next we wiped the rims clean and screwed on the lids.

           Of course we had to have more than soup so............

Since we usually serve some type of bread with our homemade soups, we thought we would serve up some warm, soft pretzels with this Irish Potato soup.


Since pretzels are symbolic of arms folded in prayer, we thought they were the perfect choice this time of year!

To assemble the soup and pretzels together for meal time: we put the soup into the jars while still hot as mentioned above. While the soup was in it's final last minutes of cooking, we warmed the pretzels so they would be ready to tie onto the soup about the same time the soup finished.


Once pretzels were out of the oven, we allowed them 2-3 minutes to cool so we could handle them enough to tie onto the jar.


We used some yarn that looks like bakers twine and treaded it through the pretzel and around the jar and tied it off.


Serve immediately. If anything needs to be warmed slightly, use the microwave for a couple seconds.

This is a good meal to serve to the family on St. Patrick's Day when every one is home and wondering what mom is going to craft up for lunch!

Soups are good and nutritious year round. Serving them in something other than the normal bowl is exciting and different. It may even get those picky eaters to at least take a bite before they decide they "don't like it"!Be inspired, get creative!


Every word of God is pure;
He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

Proverbs 30:5




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