An Irish Weekend

I got messy in the kitchen the other night making up a large pot of Irish Cheddar Potato Soup. I found the recipe in the Whole Foods circular and thought it sounded delicious: potatoes, Irish cheddar, asparagus. A great spring soup, especially when it's still chilly outside.

But it was kind of messy, mainly because you have to puree the soup in a blender in small batches, and I think my batches were too big so they kind of almost sort of blew the lid off the blender. Oopsie. 

If you own an immersion blender, which I do not but I really want one, you might be able to blend the soup that way. Because I don't have one (but I really want one) I wasn't able to try it out, but if you make this and use your immersion blender, let me know how it works! And then let me know what brand of immersion blender you use and if you'd recommend it!

Now onto the recipe. I changed it up a bit. First, I left out the leeks. 

Second, I used Yukon potatoes instead of red potatoes. We already had several Yukon potatoes, and I didn't feel like buying more potatoes and letting the Yukon potatoes go to waste. I also didn't peel my potatoes. Who has time for that?

Third, I used dried thyme instead of fresh, but then I read that you're supposed to take out the thyme before the end, so... If you think you are being clever like me and using dried thyme instead of fresh, you aren't.

Fourth, my asparagus was not thinly cut into coins. I was sort of pressed for time. (My husband decided to go to a concert at the last minute.) So I just cut up the whole bunch as small as I could. 

And last but not least, I did not use Kilaree Cheddar because my grocery store didn't carry it. But they did carry Kerrygold Irish Cheddar, which was delicious and grated very easily. I'd never had Irish cheese before, so this was fun.

Oh yeah, and if you're making this gluten-free, don't forget to make sure your chicken broth is gluten-free!

We continued our Irish food weekend last night with Shepherd's Pie. We have LOTS of leftovers for the week!