Beer Cheese Soup

Ingredients:

Beer Cheese Soup Recipe
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1 cup carrot, diced
- 2 potatoes, 1" diced
- 16 oz sharp cheddar cheese
- 7 cups chicken stock (I bought 2 4 cup boxes of stock)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 4 tbsp butter
- sausage
- bacon
- very tasty beer

Open up your cooking beer and set it aside. We're going to let it get warm and flat while cooking.

Step 1:

First off, throw the bacon into a glass dish and set the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the bacon until perfect - I think mine was in for twenty minutes.

Step 2:

While the bacon is cooking, chop up the celery, carrots, onions, potatoes, and cheese. Yeah, I forgot to get a cheese grater and diced the cheese into 1/2" blocks.

Step 3:

Add some vegetable oil to a pan and toss in the onions, carrots, and celery. I ground a dash of black pepper over it. Cook until the onions are soft and almost translucent.

Step 4:

When the vegetables are done, set them to the side to cool. Yay, the bacon's done! Behold its glory.

Step 5:

I'm about to pat off some oil and then chop it up into fine pieces.

Step 6:

Ahh yes, the beer we'll be using. Rogue Brewery's Dead Guy Ale. Happiness in a liquid form.

Step 7:

Now that the veggies are a bit cooler, we can put them in the blender. That's right, you heard what I said, don't pretend like you don't know what's going on up in here. Splash a cup of chicken stock in first, then shovel everything in.

Step 8:

The end result should look something like this:

Step 9:

Appetizing as it is, we must move on. I took about 4 tablespoons of bacon fat from the pan and put it into a tall pot. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in with it and whisk in the 8 tbsp of flour. This makes a pretty thick mess, so start adding stock as soon as the flour, butter, and fat are smooth.

Step 10:

Stir and add the stock slowly to keep it mixed well. Bring the base up to a boil over medium high heat. Time to add vegetable puree!


Return to a boil. I like a little heat behind my beer cheese soup, so I used nearly 3 tsp of white pepper, but you can taste the pepper after 2 tsp. Use phantom hands to drop in the cheese so you don't splash boiling stock all over you! While you're at it, toss in the potatoes.

(As a side note, sometimes I cook the potatoes separately, until they fall apart under a fork's lancing. I've found that the cooked potatoes thicken up the soup a bit more than cooking them in the stock.)

Step 11:

About this time, you should cook up the sausage. Stir the soup every minute or so while the meat cooks. When the sausage is done, cut it up and put it on the pot.

Step 12:

Turn off the heat and pour in the beer. This is going to give off an amazing beer aroma for a little bit, don't be afraid. Let it happen.

Step 13:

I should have poured the beer into a larger container to go flat. Here you'll see what happens when you're dumb like me.

Ah beer foam everywhere! See, this is why I turned off the burner. If it had kept boiling, that goo would be all over my stove right now. I get these bouts of clairvoyance, but only when I'm going to do something stupid. Phew, that was close!

Step 14:

This beer cheese soup recipe made a lot of servings, probably around 10 bowls. It's perfect for football season when all the guys are over. Plus it's relatively simple and I think I spent $30 total and ended up with 5 extra tasty beers to drink while cooking and eating.

This beer cheese soup recipe can also be done with a white fish instead of sausage. Both ways are awesome and heart attack inducing.