Among the many thousands of favorite potato recipes handed down from generation to generation, the ultimate favorite has to be the simple, thick, white and delicious potato soup recipe everybody’s grandma used to make. But even though it’s comfort food, it’s not as easy to make as you might think. Below are a few basic potato soup recipes that really work.

TRIED AND TRUE GRANDMA’S POTATO SOUP RECIPE

(The trick is to take your time!)

3 teaspoons butter or margarine

3 cups chopped leeks (or onions)

3 tablespoons flour

2 quarts water

Salt & pepper to taste

4 cups chopped potato

½ cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

In a five-quart pan, melt the butter and add the leeks (or onions). Cook over medium heat until for five minutes.

Carefully and slowly, add the water as you stir the mixture to avoid lumps, the bane of the potato soup. Your grandma would never make lumpy potato soup, and there’s no reason for you to, either.

Add the chopped potatoes and simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes. Just before you serve this soup, stir in the cream and parsley, plus three more tablespoons of butter.

While there’s no better potato soup recipe for the bleak mid-winter months than the basic potato recipe above, during the sweltering summer months, nothing rivals the cold and classy Vichysoise.

This classic French potato soup recipe is famous the world over for a refreshing one-dish cold meal when the heat is fierce.

COLD POTATO SOUP RECIPE

(Vichysoise)

Make one liter (one quart) of vegetable stock using bouillon cubes. Pre-bake a half kilo (1 pound, 2 ounces) of potatoes. After they cool, peel them and crumble them loosely right into the vegetable stock. Using a hand-blender, mix until creamy and thick, then stir in about 2 ounces of sherry and sour cream, salt and pepper to taste. Let the soup get cold in the refrigerator, or use ice cubes in the mix.

You can boil the potatoes in the stock rather than bake them, and you can substitute wine for the sherry. Try using chicken stock or chicken bouillon instead of vegetable bouillon too, or even leftover mashed potatoes and leftover veggie soup! You can even use sweet potatoes or red potatoes instead of regular potatoes. It’s all good provender, and -- as my grandpa used to say – you put the hay down where the goats can get at it.