Potato Bacon Rivel Soup

Mama Cee Jay's Note:

In rural Ohio, rivel soup is a treasured home-style soup and everybody has their own version. This recipe is from my mother. You can add left over mashed potatoes after you have cooked the rivels in the onions and celery for extra potato flavor.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 8 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup celery, finely diced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 dash pepper
• 1 1/2 quarts whole milk
• 1/4 lb crisp bacon, cooked
• 5 tablespoons bacon grease
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Cook potatoes, onions, celery, salt, dash pepper in 2 cups of water in stockpot. Cover and cook until potatoes are easily pierced with tip of knife.
2. To make rivels: beat egg and salt with fork in medium bowl. Add flour all at once and beat until small pebbles form. Use your fingers to break apart if necessary. If you have flour that did not incorporate into the egg, then just add it with the rivels as it will help thicken the soup.
3. Add uncooked rivels slowly, adding water if necessary, stirring constantly, approximately five minutes until tender. Add whole milk and crisp bacon and bacon grease. Add evaporated milk and simmer until flavors are well blended.

Reviews

[bmxmama]

This soup has a really good flavor, but I had problems with the rivel's. I couldn't make them no matter how hard I tried. I never got anything pebble like. I tried twice. I even cut down the flour to 1/2 cup and I still got this big lump of stuff. So..I blame that part on me. I ended up thickening it up and eating it without and as a potato soup..it's got great simple flavor that I really enjoyed! I'm going to try this again when I'm not having a brain fart.

[Lainey6605]

My family loves soup - even in the summertime - and this one was a winner in my house. This soup has great, rich, creamy flavor. I did add a little more bacon because my DH and two DS are meat and potato type of guys. Made for ZWT3 2007.

[Dawn]

I added chicken broth as well, more bacon could easily be added as well. My daughter said it tasted like clam chowder without the clams. A good filling soup.