I looked all over the internet and did not find a recipe for this soup that my mom made during my childhood. So I’m putting it out there. We loved it as kids. And it’s easy to make. It never really had a name. We just called it “that potato and hamburger soup with the French onion dip in it.”
Potato Hamburger Soup with French Onion Dip
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
1 pound ground beef
1 small yellow onion, diced (this is how my Mom made it…I use 1 T. dry onion flakes due to an allergy DH has to fresh onion)
1 tsp. dry basil
1 tsp. dry parsley
2 chopped garlic cloves or 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp. celery seed
freshly ground pepper to taste (Personally, I like a lot of pepper in this soup.)
milk
1/4 c. flour / add enough milk to make one cup and whisk to remove all lumps
8 oz. French Onion Dip
salt to taste (Don’t add salt until you’ve tasted the finished soup, as the dip has a lot of salt in it.)
Boil the potatoes in water until soft. Drain. I pour the water off, just until I can’t pour more off without losing potatoes. I don’t drain all the water off. The water contains starch which helps thicken the soup.
Meanwhile, brown the ground beef and onion in a skillet. (Note: I doubled the recipe when I took these pictures…the soup was going to a church supper…filled a large crock pot when finished.)
After draining the potatoes, add the meat and onion to the pot.
Add enough milk to top the mixture by 1/2 – 1 inch.
Add the spices.
Add the flour/milk mixture and cook for ten minutes, stirring now and then, until soup has thickened. Add more milk if it’s too thick for your preference.
Turn off the heat.
Add the French onion dip to the soup and stir well. If you add it and then reheat the soup to a high temperature, the dip may curdle.
Taste and add salt if needed.
Except for the spices, which I just had to add, that’s the way I remember my mother making it. No embellishments.
Next time I make it, I will add freshly diced celery and carrots to the potatoes as they cook. And if I have fresh parsley, I’ll finely chop a small bunch of that and stir it into the finished soup.
I’m wondering how this would taste made with an envelope of Lipton onion soup mix and a container of sour cream instead of the French onion dip. Close enough to the original?
When I made the soup last night, it really brought back memories of the kitchen in our house on Oakland Avenue. Just smelling the aroma while the soup simmered took me back. I felt like I was in high school again. Yikes…
~~Rhonda
