Hatch Green Chile Potato Soup is magic. This soup is rich, creamy and yet it packs enough chile flavor to put a little spring in your step. The magical part about this is if you had to taste this without the benefit of sight you would swear it had a ton of cheese in the soup. A creamy texture lays on the palate like velvet and you would swear you would be eating a very cheese based soup.
The secret is that the potato does most of the heavy lifting, with just a little spot from cream to help bring it together.
This recipe is amazing any time of the year. However, when the temperature starts to head south, this Green Chile Potato Soup really starts to melt you on the inside.
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium sized leek, washed and diced
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 Hatch chiles, roasted
- 4 medium russet potatoes, cubed
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 quart vegetable stock
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- Salt and Pepper
- chives, for garnish
- In a large Dutch oven add butter over a medium heat. Add leeks, celery, carrots and chiles. Allow to cook for 5 minutes until they start to just soften. Season the vegetables with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Add the potatoes to the pot and allow to continue to cook an additional 4-5 minutes.
- Stir in the flour and cook for a minute to allow the flour taste to cook out. Then add the stock and allow to come to a slight simmer. Stir the soup to ensure no items are sticking at the bottom of the Dutch oven. Cover the pot and allow to simmer 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
- Add the milk, cream and chili powder.
- Working in batches, ladle a portion of the soup and add it to your blender. Blend until smooth. It is important to note that you should do this slowly and be careful as this his hot soup. I let it cool slightly before doing this step. I also make it a rule to never fill the blender more than 2/3 full. Blend most of the soup - I like to leave about 1/3 un-blended for texture.
- Return the blended soup to the Dutch oven and season the soup to your preference with salt and pepper.