How to make soup from mashed potatoes

There are not many days in Southern California when the sky looks like this in the morning:

I’m an emotional cook (which is why you will probably never see a video of me cooking :-), but more on that later) and waking up to gray skies triggered a yearning for something warm and soothing.

Hmmm, I could make vegetable soup but didn’t feel like doing all that chopping – I had a blog post to knock out. I scanned the contents of the fridge  – the bowl of  leftover mashed potatoes from our steak dinner the other night was staring back at me. Yep – nothing spells comfort better than POTATOES!  So here you go: How to make soup from leftover mashed potatoes:

Pour the broth (vegetable or chicken) into a large (3 quart) saucepan and heat over medium-high.  Spoon the mashed potatoes into the broth – you need about 2 cups of mashed potatoes. Stir the mixture to blend, add half the bag of frozen corn, cook for a few minutes. Remove from heat and puree using a hand-held blender – this is one of my must-have kitchen tools – great for smoothies, no blender to clean 🙂

Add the remaining corn, heat through. If you like a smoother soup you can puree it again. I pureed it a bit more, but leaving some chunky corn for texture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped scallions and roasted red peppers.

Variations: Substitute vegetable broth for vegan/vegetarian. Add cheese or cream if you desire a richer, creamier chowder. Substitute broccoli and add cheese for a quick broccoli cheese soup.

Enjoy!