Sick wife wanted comfort food. Making it from scratch takes longer but is so much less expensive than glop from a can. Potatoes, onion, butter, salt, pepper.
Cost per person, 70¢ not including the pepper sauce. A standard can of condensed is almost three times the cost.
Some chicken or vegetable stock of some kind would be an improvement.
And then if you added a bunch of leeks you’re grtting close to a vichyssoise.
I used to do a potato leak soup all the time but my food desert makes leaks a very rare item.
I have gallons of stock on hand that I have canned myself. I do not believe in using it for when I will be discarding it, things like boiling pasta or potatoes in. It’s too valuable a resource to drain off even if it’s practically free.
Oh no dont pour it off, include it in the soup. Didnt realise the water was only for cooking the potatoes, but you can replace some of the milk with stock and cream.