Kartoff... kartoffelrahmsuppe... SPICED POTATO SOUP.

I'm pretty much in love with this soup.

Look at it.  It wants you to eat it.  It needs you to eat it.  It stares at you with it's nutmeg and cloves and potatoes and it begs you to devour it.

Naughty soup.

Seriously, though... this soup is completely out of control for a potato soup without pork fat in it.  My very good friend Lindsay Marie's famous potato soup owes part of it's extreme awesomeness to a pound of bacon.  This soup's power, however, lies in the ingredients I would never, ever, ever put together on my own mixing into something completely different and suffering from an incurable case of "Aw, Snap!"

Horseradish, something that I admittedly hate because of its licorice flavor, takes the soup's mildly sweet flavors and connects them in a way that is going to force you to smile, no matter what happened to you that day.  It's an epic soup win. 

Spiced Potato Soup (Holla!)

Adapted from Saveur, November 2011

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced fine

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

1/2 leek (or one small leek), white and light green parts only, sliced

1 1/4 lb Yukon gold potatoes, cut into bite size chunks

2 2/3 cups chicken stock

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 celery root, diced fine

2 tablespoons finely grated horseradish

1 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped marjoram

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 bay leaves

Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

finely chopped chives and caramelized onions for garnish

Heat butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add the garlic, onion and leek and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add potatoes, stock, cream, celery root, horseradish, marjoram, cloves and bay leaves.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low.  Cook, stirring occasionally until potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes.  Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper, remove from heat.

At this point, if you chose to, you can use an immersion blender to puree the soup into a frothy maelstrom of flavor... but I like my soup to have bits in it, so I skipped this step.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls, garnish with chives and caramelized onions.