It might as well have been a double dawg dare! 
When Holler over at Tinned Tomatoes left a comment reminding me about February’s “No Croutons Required” cooking challenge–which just happened to be featuring potatoes this month–there was no way I could not participate. After all, she was right… hubby does love his potatoes.
But where to begin? I love my cookbooks, so I don’t often create original recipes, sans converting omni-based dishes into animal-friendly masterpieces. I was worried I’d fail. I pulled from the shelves cookbook after cookbook for inspiration. I took several ideas and sprinkled them with my own creativity, resulting in a yummy vegan potato soup. I’m pleased with the way it turned out! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 
Vegan Rustic Whole Wheat Potato Soup
2 – pounds russet potatoes, scrubbed/washed, leaving skins on
3/4 – of an onion, chopped
1 to 2 – tsp olive oil
1/2 – cup whole wheat flour
1/2 – tsp each dried basil, seasoned salt
1/4 – tsp each garlic powder, onion salt, pepper, rubbed sage, dried thyme
4.5 – cups broth (I used “Not Chick’n” by Edward & Sons)
3 – cups plain soymilk
1/4 – cup grated vegan parmesan cheese
mashed potato pulp leftover from another recipe (optional)Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pierce potatoes with a fork, wrap in foil and bake for about an hour, or until tender. Cool potatoes then cut into chunks and set aside.
In a large stockpot, saute onion in olive oil under soft and beginning to brown. Stir in whole wheat flour and seasonings. Stirring constantly, add broth gradually and then bring to a boil.
Cook and stir until it begins to thicken. Add potato chunks and return to a boil before reducing heat. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in soymilk and cheese until blended. If you have potato pulp leftover from another dish, fold it in; this is a good recipe to use potato pulp in as it adds texture to the soup.
This looks awesome. I’ll need to bookmark or print it out for a cooler day. Here in the Southern Hemispher we’re slap bang in Summer.
I’ve been thinking about recipes and when they become your own. For instance, I’ll look at a receipe for inspiration and then throw in my own twist, often the twist is major. But at which point does the new recipe become my own? Is it when 30% of the recipe has been changed, or simply 1-2 ingredients? It’s an interesting thought and I’d love to know what you think.
Hi Diane,
It IS an interesting thought and I’m still not sure at this point. For me personally, I don’t know if I’d ever feel like a recipe was 100 percent truly my own unless I created it from scratch. In other cases, where some ingredients are changed, I think I might consider it “my” version of such and such a recipe…. mainly due to my own lack of confidence in my cooking, LOL It’s a tough call and usually why I’m so leery about posting recipes on my blog. For now I’ve decided that if I veg*nize a recipe, I may post it and state where the inspiration came from, so that I’m still giving credit to the original recipe. We’ll see how that works! But it is a fascinating subject and I’d love to hear what others think about it, too.
I have to admit that I’ve thought about quite a lot lately. I also like to refer to the recipe that inspired my idea, if one has. Even starting from scratch you’ll be drawing on an idea created by someone else, possibly a hundred years ago! Either way cooking and creating is a lot of fun and by linking to other recipes you get to expose your readers to a other blogs and other blogs to your readers (which I love by the way).
I enjoy the referring too. I’m addicted to reading blogs! So many great ones out there! I don’t know what I’d do without my Bloglines reader… it’s been a huge help in allowing me to keep up with all my favs.
Interesting soup, I’m curious about how much flavor the flour adds or if it just adds texture?
I very much agree with linking back to the inspiration or base for a recipe. I think it is a good way to see a little of how people think. Plus, if I post my variation and you don’t like it maybe the recipe I based it on is what you are looking for.
Maggie, I’d say it does a little bit of both. I don’t think the flavor is too strong or distracting, but I know some people don’t like some whole wheat items (like pasta) for that reason.
I’m intrigued by the idea of including flour. I’ve put oats into soup before now but this is new to me.
Interesting question about when a recipe is ‘yours’, I’m awful at following recipes & usually use recipe books just for the pictures for inspiration. Most of my cooking is done by looking at what I’ve got in & what flavour combinations I fancy that day… which makes it hard to blog my recipes because everything is ‘a handful of this’ and ‘a sprinkle of that’…..
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