Cheesy Potato Soup — Eight Bags for the Freezer Because the Freezer Is Always Ready

It snowed seven inches Tuesday and school was canceled and all five children were home and the noise was the kind of noise that has a physical weight — you can feel it pressing on your temples like a headache that laughs. Noah threw a block at Mason. Mason threw the block back. Lily cried because the block landed near her, not on her, but proximity to violence is enough when you're six and have strong opinions about personal space. Ethan put on headphones and disappeared into his room. Olivia organized the pantry, unprompted, because she is my daughter and organizing things is what we do when the world is loud.

I made soup. When in doubt, make soup. This is not a philosophy I read somewhere — this is a fact I have arrived at through eleven months of grief and feeding five children and discovering that soup is the only food group that can be made in large quantities, frozen in bags, reheated in twenty minutes, and consumed by toddlers without requiring a bath afterward. I made a double batch of cheesy potato soup — potatoes, chicken broth, cream cheese, cheddar, a little onion, a little garlic, and the kind of heavy cream that makes your cardiologist nervous but your family happy, and I have decided that happiness outranks cardiology in January. Eight bags. Into the freezer. The freezer doesn't care about snow days. The freezer is always ready.

Thursday night I sat at the kitchen table after the kids were in bed and did what I always do when the house is quiet: I looked at the numbers. Grocery spending this month: $487 for a family of seven, which is $69.57 per person, which is $2.32 per person per day. I fed seven people three meals a day for a month on what some families spend on takeout in a week. The accountant in me wrote it down. The mother in me stared at it. Both of them were satisfied.

I called Mom Saturday morning. She asked how the fourteenth was. I said, "Hard." She said, "I know, sweetheart." She didn't say anything about Heavenly Father's plan. She didn't say Grace is in a better place. She said, "Your dad and I are making pot roast tonight, do you want to bring the kids over?" and I said yes, because pot roast at my mother's house in Orem is not theology but it is the closest thing to comfort I know, and sometimes comfort is enough. We drove over. The kids ate pot roast. Dad said grace. I sat at the table where I sat as a child and I was a child again, briefly, between bites, before the grief came back and reminded me that I am a mother who has buried a daughter, and children who have buried daughters don't get to be children anymore. But for the length of pot roast, I was close.

That Sunday, after the kids were in bed and the house went quiet in the way it does now—a different kind of quiet than before—I made a double batch of cheesy potato soup and portioned it into the freezer, because that is what I know how to do with grief that is too big to carry: I feed people, including future versions of myself who will be too tired to cook. Soup felt right the way pot roast at my mother’s felt right, warm and heavy and honest, nothing asking anything of you. Here’s how I made it.

Cheesy Potato Soup (Double Batch — Makes 8 Freezer Portions)

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 10–12

Ingredients

• 3 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened and cut into chunks
• 2 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Sour cream, sliced chives, and crumbled bacon for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Sweat the aromatics. Melt butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more, until fragrant.
2. Simmer the potatoes. Add the diced potatoes and chicken broth. Raise heat to bring to a boil, then reduce to a steady simmer. Cook uncovered for 20–22 minutes, until potatoes are completely tender and break apart easily when pressed with a spoon.
3. Blend to your texture. Use an immersion blender to blend about half the soup directly in the pot, leaving visible chunks for texture. Alternatively, transfer 3 cups of soup to a blender, blend until smooth, and stir back in. (If the soup is thicker than you like, add broth 1/4 cup at a time.)
4. Melt in the dairy. Reduce heat to low. Add the cream cheese chunks and stir steadily until fully melted and no lumps remain, 3–4 minutes. Pour in the heavy cream and stir to combine. Add 2 cups of the shredded cheddar and stir until completely melted and smooth.
5. Season and finish. Stir in the salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Taste and adjust seasoning. Ladle into bowls and top with the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar, a dollop of sour cream, and chives if desired.
6. To freeze. Cool completely before portioning. Ladle into quart-sized zip freezer bags, press flat, and freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, or thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm on the stovetop. Stir well before serving, as dairy soups can separate slightly—a few seconds of stirring brings it right back together.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 370 | Protein: 11g | Fat: 25g | Carbs: 26g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 670mg