Loaded Potato Soup
Instant potatoes, powdered milk, real bacon bits, and cheese. Camp version of the pressure cooker classic.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 144
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 7 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 3/4 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | replaces the canned soup and cream cheese |
| Chicken or vegetable bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp | check the label if you need it gluten-free |
| Freeze-dried mushrooms | 2 tbsp | crushed small so they rehydrate fast |
| Shelf-stable real bacon bits | 1/4 cup | |
| Freeze-dried or hard sharp cheddar | 1.5 oz | |
| Onion powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Dried chives | 1 tsp | stands in for green onion |
| Olive oil or butter powder | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Boil 500 ml of water. Drop in the bouillon, mushrooms, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Stir and let it sit off the heat for two minutes so the mushrooms soften.
- Add the potato flakes and milk powder a spoonful at a time, stirring between. Stop when it pours like a thick soup, not a mash.
- Stir in the cheese and the oil while the pot is still hot. Keep stirring until you cannot see the cheese.
- Top with the bacon bits and chives. Eat now; it thickens as it cools.
The original is a pressure cooker dump recipe built on frozen hash browns, canned soup, and a block of cream cheese. None of that travels. Potato flakes and powdered whole milk do the same two jobs — starch and fat — at a fraction of the weight, and freeze-dried mushrooms cover what the cream of mushroom can was there for.
Add the flakes slowly. All at once and you get mashed potatoes with cheese in them, which is fine but is not soup, and you cannot walk it back without more water and more fuel. The cheese goes in off the heat: direct flame breaks it and you end up with grease on top.
Packing
Everything dry except the cheese and bacon goes in one bag. Cheese and bacon in a second bag so the grease stays contained. If you carry a hard block of cheddar, cut it small at home; cold cheese does not stir in.
Variations
- Skip the bacon and use vegetable bouillon for a meatless pot.
- A packet of instant refried beans thickens it further and adds another 10 g of protein.
- Hot sauce or a pinch of smoked paprika if the bouillon tastes flat.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/instant-pot-potato-soup-with-bacon-and-cheese