Baked Potato Soup is my love language. Also Bacon. If you’re a sucker for comfort food you can top with candied bacon and smoked cheese and sip with a spoon, then keep reading. This has everything you love about traditional Baked Potato Soup, but with sweet and savory fall flavors.
We’re going to start here like most recipes should start: with bacon. You can make plain bacon, but I’m playing up this sweet-savory thing here and I highly suggest you just go for it and do the same. I’m rubbing mine with just a tiny bit of brown sugar, but you could also do this easy Maple-Glazed Bacon instead. That would be amazing as well. Sweet bacon caramelizes as it cooks and makes the most amazing concoction that’s basically bacon candy.
When the bacon comes out of the oven, reserve some of the grease and use that to saute the onions and garlic to start this soup. I’ve said it a million times, but onions and garlic cooking in bacon grease is one of the best smells in the entire world. I keep writing letters to Bath and Body Works to get it in a 3-wick candle. No dice.
Next you’re going to push the onions and garlic over to the side of your pan to start a roux. A roux is a cooked mixture of a little flour, butter, and milk. It’s purpose is to thicken the soup.
You’ll then pour in chicken broth, salt and pepper, smoked paprika, and a little sage.
Then in goes your sweet potato. You can cook these the day before, or use leftovers.
Turn off the heat and add the last flavors: just a hint of apple cider vinegar and some smoked cheddar. You can usually find smoked cheddar in the deli area of the grocery store by the specialty cheeses. This adds an amazing smoky flavor and adds richness.
With any soup, I’m all about the toppings. I love more cheese, green onions, that candied bacon. And for a little crunch, I sprinkled on a few sweet potato chips. A drizzle of cream is also delicious in there. We love soup like this served with a toasty grilled cheese sandwich.
Baked Sweet Potato Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 onion, medium diced (about 1 heaping cup)
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 32 ounces chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon rubbed sage
- 1 ½ cups sweet potato, cooked, mashed about 1 medium
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup cheddar cheese, smoked, shredded plus more for topping
Toppings
- sliced green onions, cheese, sweet potato chips, drizzle of cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 ℉. Line a baking sheet with foil and lay bacon slices in a single layer. Rub about ½ teaspoon brown sugar over each slice. Bake until bacon is crisp (about 20-25 minutes) and then remove to cool. I usually place cooked slices on a baking rack over foil. Don't set on paper towels because the sugar will stick!
- Place 2 tablespoons of the grease from the bacon pan in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5-6 minutes, until onion is tender. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds more.
- Push onions to the side and add butter to pan until melted. Add flour and cook mixture for about a minute until smooth. Mix around with onions in pan for another minute.
- Slowly add in chicken broth and whisk until smooth. Add salt, pepper, smoked paprika and sage. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes. Add sweet potatoes, then turn off heat and add vinegar and cheese.
- If you prefer your soup smooth (which I recommend), place in blender or use an immersion blender to process until smooth.
- Top with bacon and desired toppings; I use all that are listed.
Notes
- To cook sweet potato, you can prick and bake in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes or until soft to the touch, or prick a few times and place in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of water and covered with plastic wrap. Microwave for 5 minutes or until completely soft.
- Nutritional information was calculated without the use of toppings.
Nutrition
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Questions & Reviews
Made this today for lunch and it was fabulous! Didn’t have smoked cheese so I put three drops of liquid smoke and used a good quality aged cheddar. A keeper for fall nights.
Just made this for work, and a lot of people loved it 🙂 I doubled the recipe, and blended it, and would do so in the future. But also wished I had even more sweet potatoes to top it off with.
Could you replace the sweet potato with butternut squash?
You probably could- It would just maybe change the consistency a bit since butternut isn’t quite as thick and hearty. But I bet it would still taste great!
This was absolutely delicious! My husband said it got better with each bite and 2/3 kids liked it. I believe #3 would have liked it had she been willing to try it. Well done!
Looking everywhere for sweet potato chips. Not sure I want a case of them on Amazon. Then again….
Any suggestions?
Most normal grocery stores sell sweet potato chips. They are often near the health foods (if not in the chip aisle!)
This was super yummy! My husband and I both loved it. It was a bit too sophisticated for my kids’ taste, so, we may need to put it on the menu in a few more years. 🙂
I made this tonight and it’s fantastic!! I didn’t make the candied bacon but used 2 Tbsp. olive oil to sautée the onion. I figured it to be 5 1-cup servings. When I ran it through the WW recipe builder, it came to 7 SmartPoints per cup (without the delicious toppings).
Thanks for another winner!!
Can you freeze this by chance?
Hey Eileen! Ya, this should freeze just fine. Sometimes soups like this thicken quite a bit when chilled or frozen, and if that’s the case, just add a little broth to thin.
really love sweet potato anything! thank you for sharing this it looks wonderfully balanced!
Making this tomorrow! I just had gum grafting done this morning and am on a liquid/soft foods diet and not finding as many savory options, this looks great. Can’t wait to try with the bacon, too, when I’m back to normal. Thanks so much for this recipe!
I made this tonight for dinner and it was so so delicious!! Definitely going on our list of favorites. I have one question though- I was putting it into my fitness pal (I’m doing the diet bet with you!) and it came up with a really low calorie count- under 200 calories per serving (I estimated 5 servings). I was just curious if you had calculated the calories and got something similar!
PS I think like 90% of my dinner recipes come from either your blog or your cookbooks – so thank you for all the work you have done!
Awe, thanks! That’s good to hear. And that calorie count doesn’t sound off to me at all. This soup has all kinds of delicious things in it, but it’s still fairly healthy!
Thanks for replying! I was pretty happy when I saw how low in calories it was!
I know you posted this a few years ago so not sure if you’ll see this, but it totally makes sense since the only significant sources of calories here are the sweet potato, butter, bacon, and toppings. I’m curious if you included all the toppings? This is going on my list. I have all the ingredients besides the sweet potato. I do have a can of pumpkin (puree, not pie filling). I’m tempted to try it with that to avoid going to the store for one thing!
This looks so incredible! I am definitely making it with the maple bacon…. Would cup-4-cup work on this instead of regular flour? Or would you suggest another flour to make this gluten-free?
That’s a great question, Stephanie. I’ve never tried gluten free flours in roux, but I looked up a few things and heard that rice flour, and also the King Arthur Gluten free Flour mix works well. You might want to do a little more research or even test out a little to see if what you have, works!
I’ve been gf for years. In place of a roux, I mix corn starch with my ( cool/ cold) liquid, and add ( or in this case, leave) my fat seperately.
Will this soup still taste good without the shredded cheese added? My husband hates and will not eat cheese.
Ya, I think it would still be great. And what?! Who hates cheese?! haha!
I know, right?!! Can’t wait to have kiddos to make the balance uneven lol!
It is currently cold and rainy here in MI. and this soup sounds devine! I love the idea of all the flavors coming together. I can’t wait to try it.
How many servings does this make? Did I miss that?
Great question. I know I measured how much this yields, but I can’t find it anywhere! My batch fed my family though, so I’d say 6 servings or so.
This looks amazing! I need to make this soon!
We’re currently road tripping (just drove through Boise – Hi!!) and being on day 2 of car snacks and fast food makes my need for this soup even more immediate than normal. Can’t wait to give it a try.
Hey there! I totally thought that was you waving! 😉
Yum! This looks and sounds so delicious. Putting it on next weeks menu. The