This delicious potato cheese soup is loaded with potatoes, celery, onions, and cheese, and seasoned just right. If you love Marie Callender’s Potato Cheese Soup, you’ll love that you can make it at home.
Marie Callender is an iconic restaurant chain in Southern California, and their potato soup was always one of my faves. Now that I live in Texas, though, I’m out of luck.
Except, I’m not because I’ve used my skills to add this copycat Marie Callender potato cheese soup to my list of potato recipes! It’s a rich, creamy potato and cheese soup that fills up the heart and belly with every bite.
The best part is that it’s so easy to make. Pair it with garlic read with roasted garlic, jalapeno cheddar biscuits, or even my homemade soft pretzels for the ultimate comfort food meal on a cold day!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Basic Ingredients: This soup uses basic ingredients that are most likely in your kitchen right now.
- So Easy: This recipe only takes a few simple steps and about an hour from start to finish.
- Rich and Hearty: The combination of tender, cubed potatoes and tons of cheese in a thick, creamy soup base creates a rich, hearty, filling comfort food recipe.
- A Great Cold-Weather Meal: A piping hot bowl of this cheesy potato soup is just the thing to warm you up on a cold day.
- Customizable: It’s easy to tweak this recipe to make it your own, so you can have fun experimenting.
Key Ingredients
You’ll find a full list of the ingredients and their exact amounts in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Cubed Potatoes: Russet potatoes create a soup with a nice blend of potato chunks and a thick, creamy base.
- Heavy Cream: Heavy cream adds richness to the soup and thickens it.
- Velveeta and Sharp Cheddar: A blend of Velveeta and sharp cheddar makes the soup extra rich and melty and adds a big, bold kick of cheese flavor.
- Seasonings: Slap Ya Mama blend adds a complex, aromatic, slightly sweet, and smoky flavor.
Variations
- Potatoes: Yukon Gold potatoes work well in place of russet. For a soup with firmer, more uniform potato chunks, use red potatoes or even fingerling potatoes sliced in half.
- Broccoli: Add broccoli for a hearty broccoli potato cheese soup.
- Other Veggies: Carrots, parsnips, and mushrooms are all tasty additions to this soup.
- Meaty: Add diced leftover ham for a cheesy ham and potato soup. Ground beef or Italian sausage also adds tons of flavor and texture. Try adding bacon for a smoky note.
- Spicy: Add red pepper flakes for a spicy kick.
- Cheese: I love the combo of Velveeta and cheddar, but other great choices include gruyere, Monterey Jack, provolone, Swiss, and pepper jack.
How to Make Potato Cheese Soup
I’ve included a brief overview of this recipe right here, but you can find the exact instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Peel, cube, and boil the potatoes in a large Dutch oven or saucepan until fork-tender. Then, drain and mash about half the potatoes.
- Saute the onions and celery in butter in the Dutch oven until the onions are translucent.
- Add the flour and cook until the raw flour smell is gone.
- Add the broth, cream, and seasonings, and cook until hot. Then, add the cheeses and continue cooking until melted.
- Add the potatoes and cook on low until thickened and heated throughout.
Expert Tips
- Be sure you cook your roux for a minute or two before adding any other ingredients. Otherwise, your soup will have a raw flour flavor.
- Leave your potatoes in the strainer until ready to add them back to the soup. This ensures as much excess water as possible drains away for a thicker, richer soup.
- Be sure not to let the soup boil. It will curdle the cream and ruin it.
Potato Cheese Soup FAQs
Sharp cheddar, Gruyere, Monterey Jack, Provolone, Swiss, and Pepper Jack are all excellent choices for potato soup, with each one giving the soup a different flavor profile.
Of course, cheese is always a great choice. Adding sour cream can give potato soup a baked potato flavor. Bacon, cheese, green onions, paprika, a bit of red pepper, or even some diced jalapenos are all great choices, as well.
Thin, watery potato cheese soup can be the result of not using enough roux at the start, allowing the soup to come to a boil, which will break the cream, not adequately draining the potatoes, or using too much stock.
You can refrigerate potato cheese soup for up to 4 days in an airtight container. Because the soup is made with cream, freezing is not recommended.
More Delicious Soup Recipes
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Potato Cheese Soup
Ingredients
- 8 cups potatoes, diced, boiled
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1 cup onions chopped
- 2 cups celery
- 2 Tbsp flour
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp pepper
- 1 ½ tsp Slap Ya Mama® seasoning (can be found at Walmart®)
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 8 oz Velveeta cheese, cubed
- 2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded
Instructions
- Cut peeled potatoes into ½-3/4 chunks and place in a large dutch oven or saucepan. Cover with water.
- Cook until fork tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain and leave in strainer. Remove about ½ of the potatoes and mash. This will add a bit more thickness to the soup.
- In the same pan, melt butter and add chopped onions and celery. Saute for about 8-10 minutes until celery is soft and onions are translucent.
- Sprinkle with flour, stir and cook for a minute or so.
- Gently pour vegetable broth into pan along with heavy cream, salt and pepper and seasoning.
- Cook over low/medium heat until hot then add velveeta and cheddar cheese. Stir.
- Once cheese has melted, add in the potatoes that have been mashed, stir and then add the remaining potato chunks to the liquid.
- Continue on a low heat until ready to serve.
- Top with additional cheese if desired.
Notes
- Be sure you cook your roux for a minute or two before adding any other ingredients. Otherwise, your soup will have a raw flour flavor.
- Leave your potatoes in the strainer until ready to add them back to the soup. This ensures as much excess water as possible drains away for a thicker, richer soup.
- Be sure not to let the soup boil. It will curdle the cream and ruin it.
Nutrition
Here are a few pics that are the perfect size for pinning to Pinterest.
Enjoy, Terri
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How do you freeas your fresh blueberries? Mine are not very good after freezing.
Hi Jean, when I freeze my blueberries I just put them in a freezer bag and pop in the freezer. I do not rinse them before freezing.