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I've made my first potato soup and it has no taste.
Just to get an idea this is how I made it: chopped and onion and a carrot and place them with some oil to fry. After the onion got brown, I added the potatoes, water and salt and kept it cooking until the potatoes were done.
It tastes like ... just... boiled water.
How do I salvage the soup, preferably using minimally processed ingredients (for example, avoiding MSG)?
First, cook your potatoes in stock, not water. I prefer chicken stock but you can use vegetable stock if you prefer. Make sure you use only enough stock to barely cover the potatoes, and cook them with the lid off. When the potatoes are done, add milk or cream until you achieve a nice, creamy consistency. If necessary, you can thicken it by mashing some of the potatoes against the side of the pan. You can also add some grated cheese. I would use a hard cheese like Parmigiano or Romano. Now just season to taste. With a simple soup like potato, I would stick to salt and pepper only. If you do use other spices, be careful because they will easily overwhelm the delicate flavor.
Some ingredients I like to include in potato soup:
Any combination or all of the above can be added to potato soup. The cheese, in particular will add an overall creamy flavor and texture.
(If you weren't concerned with the MSG and/or sodium, I'd suggest a couple of chicken boullion cubes, too.)
Seems to me that, aside from telling you to add ingredients (I am going to assume that you added salt prior to adding water to help sweat the ingredients), you may be missing the step of fully preparing your stock. While browning your onions will have been effective; did you just add the carrots along with the water, did you give them an opportunity to sweat and brown as well?
Some considerations:
I would also add that roast the potatoes might be helpful. Also, you can alter the soup by pureeing some portion of the potatoes and adding it back to the pot.
In terms of a few additional ingredients: toasted sesame oil, fennel (whole, fresh), dill (whole, fresh)
Fresh herbs like parsley, rosemary or thyme will give your soup zing.
If you are after salvaging this pot of soup rather than starting over, some possibilities
1 a sprig of rosemary and some garlic that's been fried with a slick of olive oil
2 white pepper horseradish and sour cream
3 fresh snipped fennel green with baby peas and asparagus (primavera)
I think you can cook your potatoes in water it is not a problem the question is how to make it fragrant even though you don`t have a stock base: first put some onions, 2 garlic cloves,3 celery leaves,small chopped carrot all of them with natural butter and let them cook for 5 minutes till they turn translucent take them to the mixer and ground then finely put them back in the pot and put 3 cups of water let them simmer for 5 minutes in another pan fry your potatoes just a little bit then add them to the simmering vegetable stock when the potatoes are 75% take them all to the mixer again and mix them then return back again to the pot here you can add cream or cheddar cheese add your black or white pepper and salt if you want an oriental flavor add 1/2 tb of cumin
The answers above are best if you're starting from scratch, but if you want to salvage this pot of soup a stock (or bouillon) cube or powder is your best bet. It's processed but it should work.
