Cheese and Potato Soup

So I've been busy, but I wanted to share this super-easy recipe with y'all. It's from the Starving Student Vegetarian Cookbook, but I have some definite comment to be made on it.

Cheese and Potato Soup with Corn

1 14 oz can of vegetable broth

1 small onion, chopped

1 8 oz can creamed corn

1 c instant mashed potatoes

1 c shredded cheddar cheese

1 ½ c milk

Dash salt and pepper, to taste

In large saucepan, add vegetable broth, chopped onion, and creamed corn. Cook at medium-high heat just until soup starts to boil.

Turn heat to low, cover pan, cook 5 minutes. Turn heat off.

Stir in potatoes until well blended, then add cheese, milk, salt and pepper. Cook over lowest heat about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until cheese is melted and soup is rich and creamy.

As my mom put it, there's not a lot of good direction here. I like it cause then that leaves it up to you to figure out. First off, I don't use onion here at all. I like onions, but I have found that I haven't been able to truly chop them small enough that I'm not crunching down on onions on occasion which totally doesn't go with the soup. "Instant mashed potatoes" is another conundrum...my mom used potato flakes, I used Betty Crocker. Betty won that one. It's about a half a package (so then you have to make the soup again to use the other half!). I used skim milk, which was fine, but whole milk does make it more creamy. And of course, I love cheese, so sometimes I put in more. Also, once I used less corn because that's what I had, but it turned out just fine either way. Just like I used organic vegetable broth, which I've found is a little thicker, so you might need to compensate one way or another depending on what ingredients and proportions you end up using.

No matter how you do it, it's easy and probably more nutritious than a lot of things that we eat. Also, very filling for a soup! I will say that the first time I made it, I could still taste the powdery instant potatoes which turned me off, but it wasn't a problem later. Same for the first time I had the leftovers; I wasn't impressed round one, but otherwise I have been.

So any way you cook it,  it's still an easy and filling recipe!