This recipe is one of my favorites from my childhood. I remember my mom cooking it when we were home from school for a snow day. So naturally, when it snowed 8 inches in October, I sent Marcus to the store for soup ingredients.

When I asked my mom for the recipe a few years ago, she told me (as she often does) that she doesn’t really follow a recipe. She just makes it from memory, so she wrote down estimates on amounts.

As a bit of a perfectionist and recipe follower, I can’t handle no recipe. Ha! So over the last couple years, I have adjusted it until I found the perfect consistency and amounts for me. Feel free to adjust! Or if you’re a strict rule/recipe follower like me, this will give you a delicious soup!

I also HIGHLY recommend using ham shanks to boil with the veggies. It gives the broth and veggies extra saltiness, and the ham is so yummy! If you can’t find any, you can just add cubed ham later in the recipe.

Hope you enjoy as much as my family does. (Yes! Even the kids ate it!)

Cheesy Ham & Potato Soup

*3-4 potatoes

*4 carrots

*8 Tbsp butter

*8 Tbsp flour

*2 cups milk

*Ham shanks (approx. 1.5 lbs or cubed ham)

*8 oz. velvet cheese

*8 oz. finely shredded sharp cheddar

Start boiling ham shanks in salted water (If using cubed ham, just boil salted water and add ham at later step).

Peel & chop carrots. Add to boiling water (they take a few minutes longer than potatoes to soften). Peel & chop potatoes. Add to boiling water and continue to boil for 15 minutes.

Drain, but save the vegetable water to add to soup later. Cut the ham up and set aside with vegetables.

In large pan, melt margarine.  Add flour, salt, and pepper and stir/whisk constantly.

When thickened, add milk. Stir/whisk constantly until very thick. Add some of the reserved vegetable water to thin. You will not use all of it. Just use enough to get to the consistency you’d like for soup (will thicken a little more after adding cheese).

Add vegetables and ham to white sauce.  Heat through.  

Finally, add cheese.  Heat and stir until melted, but don’t let it boil. (Cheese will curdle if it gets too hot.)

Enjoy!