I love soup.

It could be 100 degrees in the shade and it won’t deter me from having soup for dinner if that’s what I’m craving.

And soups are very itty bitty city kitchen friendly. They usually just require some space for your cutting board and then it all goes into one big pot.

I was thinking about summer barbecues and some of my favorite flavors from them.

I love me a big juicy burger, covered in ketchup, cheese melting down the sides.

But the supporting cast has a lot to offer too. Like potato salad. A big scoop of potato salad beside your burger. Yum.

That made me think of potatoes in general. I feel like potatoes get a bad rep for being starchy and fatty. When you fry ’em, yea, they’re not so good for you. And when you cover ’em in mayonnaise in potato salad, they’re not so good for you.

But guess what? That little spud had 45% of your daily value for Vitamin C, 10% of your B6, and more potassium than a banana.

Go Idaho Potato!

I’ve turned baked potatoes into dinner before, stuffing them with broccoli and cheese and adding a side salad. But today was a day when I wanted soup.

Lightbulb!

Baked potato soup.

Bonus? It’s vegetarian. So it’s Meatless Monday friendly.

You will need

• 3 baking potatoes
• carrots
• celery
• onion
• olive oil
• 1 cup whole milk
• salt
• pepper

That’s for the base of the soup. If want to, you can add toppings such as scallions or chives, grated cheddar cheese, a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, and, if you’re not making this as part of meatless Monday, a crumbling of bacon.  But the toppings are entirely up to you.

Here’s how you make the soup.

Bake the potatoes at 400 for about an hour, being sure to poke holes so they don’t explode in your oven.

If you don’t want to spend an hour baking potatoes after work, bake them up over the weekend. But really, baking potatoes requires no effort. You throw them in and walk away. So come home, go to the gym, take a nice long hot shower. Flip through a magazine.

The potatoes will be fine.

When the potatoes are done, remove from the oven, cut in half and let cool.

Leaving the potatoes to cool, drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a pot.

Toss in the chopped carrots, celery and onion. I used two carrots, two ribs of celery and about a third of an onion. I know I’m going to add scallions on top, so I don’t want to overwhelm the soup with onions.

Cook the vegetables until they are soft, but not brown.

Add salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

Stir and cover for a few minutes.

Peel the skins from the potatoes and discard (or snack), adding the insides to the pot.

Using the back of a spoon or a potato masher, mash the potatoes into the carrots and celery and onions.

Add more seasoning and then add enough water to cover the potatoes.

Cover and cook for a few minutes until the water softens the potatoes more.

Lower the heat, and, using an immersion blender or transferring to a food processor or blender, blend the soup until smooth. Pour back into the pot and cook over low, adding in a cup of  milk for some richness.

Let cook a few more minutes so the rawness of the milk is gone and the soup is warmed through.

Serve up in big bowls and add your toppings.

Leftovers of this are great.

If you have any.