Many moons ago when the Internet was young, we were living in Toronto, which very well may be the Best City in the World. We discovered the joys of the World Wide Web through our cool local internet service provider, a neat group called Magic. Jim was in an intensely domestic phase at the time while he was a full-time doctoral student, and he did most of the cooking for our family and our assorted graduate student-type housemates. He collected a good number of good and unusual recipes via the magical internet and gathered them in a binder titled Hot Off the Online, which strikes me still as a good name for a cookbook.

One of our most favorite recipes from that collection is Jalapeno Potato Soup. It’s an especially tasty potato soup recipe that makes the sometimes-bland-and-boring potato soup into something extraordinary, with a touch of green and without adding unnecessary calories or fat. The original recipe was posted to a recipe exchange site by a user named Danceswithcarp (giving credit where credit is due). You’ll find our variation on that below.

JALAPENO POTATO SOUP

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound bacon
• 2.5 pounds of potatoes, diced
• 3 cups of milk
• 3 cups of broth
• 2 cups of Jalapenos
• pepper & salt, white pepper too
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• flour to thicken

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp. Set aside.

In a soup pot, boil the diced potatoes until done, but still firm; drain. Pour in the broth and the milk, minus 1 cup. Add the margarine and the bacon pieces. Turn this mix up no higher than medium to heat it so you don’t scorch it.

Take the Jalapenos and puree them in a blender. For ease, I usually use a cup of milk to help with the blending. Then toss the puree into the soup and stir.

Add salt and pepper to taste and add a couple to four tablespoons of flour (or cornstarch) to thicken.

You can enjoy the soup in its chunky form or puree the whole batch for a smoother soup.

Variations and other information:

• We like jalapenos. If you aren’t sure how much you or yours does, start with fewer peppers.
• You can also regulate the heat by leaving as much (for hotter) or as little (for more jalapeno flavor than heat) of the inner ribs and seeds in place as you want. The potatoes and fat from the milk and the margarine take the edge off though.
• If you like things hot and crisp, add chopped onions, celery and additional chopped jalapenos just a few minutes before serving.

Play with the soup to make it your own. It’s double warming effect is just what’s needed on a crisp fall day.