Kartoffelcremesuppe (creamy potato soup)
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Soup
- 30 g butter rounded
- 150 g onion, chopped rounded
- 900 g floury potatoes, peeled, in 2 cm chunks rounded
- 1 L vegetable broth rounded
- 100 ml cream rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- to taste freshly ground white pepper rounded
- to taste freshly grated nutmeg rounded
To serve
- 60 g white bread, cut into small cubes, for croutons (optional) rounded
- 15 g butter, for frying the croutons (optional) rounded
- 10 g chives, finely sliced rounded
Method
Method
- Melt the butter in a 4 litre pot over medium heat and sweat the onion with a pinch of salt until translucent, about 6 minutes. Do not let it colour.
- Add the potatoes and broth. Bring to a simmer, then turn down until it barely bubbles.
- Simmer 20 minutes, until a knife tip slides into a potato chunk with no resistance.
- Blend until completely smooth, in batches in a blender if working by hand. This is not the half-and-half texture of Kartoffelsuppe; take it all the way to silky.
- Stir in the cream, then season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg, more generously than feels sensible. Taste, adjust, taste again.
- Fry the bread cubes in butter over medium heat until golden on all sides, if making croutons, and drain on paper.
- Serve with croutons and chives scattered over each bowl at the table.
Method in the Thermomix
Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl.
- Onion into the dry bowl. Chop 4 sec / speed 5.
- Add the butter. Sauté 6 min / 120 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off, until translucent.
- Add the potatoes and broth. Cook 20 min / 100 °C / speed 1, measuring cup on.
- Blend until silky, working up gradually to 1 min / speed 9. This is a full purée, not the partial blend of Kartoffelsuppe.
- Add the cream, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Mix 10 sec / speed 3. Taste through the lid and correct; it takes more seasoning than expected.
- Fry the croutons separately in a pan; the machine has no way to give them any colour.
Notes
- This is not Kartoffelsuppe. That soup keeps half its texture in chunks on purpose; this one is meant to be entirely smooth, and the two should not taste interchangeable even though the ingredient lists overlap.
- Croutons fried just before serving stay crisp longest; made ahead and reheated, they turn soft in the steam off the soup.
- It thickens overnight in the fridge. Loosen with a splash of broth when reheating, added a little at a time so the soup does not end up thin.
- A swirl of cream or a few drops of good oil on top, just before the chives go on, gives it a restaurant finish for very little extra work.
Ingredient substitutions
- Cream can be swapped for crème fraîche for a slight tang, or reduced for a lighter soup; the potato starch carries most of the body regardless.
- Vegetable broth keeps this vegetarian; chicken broth gives a rounder, more savoury result if that suits the table.
- Croutons can be swapped for a scattering of crispy fried bacon or a few toasted pumpkin seeds for a different kind of crunch.
- For a vegan version, use oil instead of butter throughout and oat cream instead of dairy cream; the texture holds up well either way.