Easy beer cheese soup

Prepare this medieval easy beer cheese soup recipe so you will enjoy a delicious and cheap soup that will warm you and fill you up on a cold day. This soup pairs well with bread and salad so you will have a complete meal ready with little work in little time.

Since the main ingredients are beer and cheese, it is obvious to say that the end result of your soup depends on the cheese and beer you choose:

• I suggest to not choose a bitter beer, I prefer Hoegaarden (which has been fermenting in the bottle, hence not too many additives involved) but my friends have had delicious results using Bass, Fat Tire Ale, Killian’s Irish Red, Yuengling Traditional Lager and even Guinness Stout (which in my opinion is quite bitter, so it all depends on your taste). Ask your beer merchant for advice or for a brown or pale ale.
• For cheese: try to buy left over pieces (so you will save money) from any kind of Cheddar or experiment with the cheese available. For a creative taste, opt for at least 2 different (Cheddar) cheeses. When you happen to have some cream available, you can use a mixture of cream and cheese (substitute not more than 2 times the amount of cheese for cream).

To make sure your soup wont curdle: add your cheese (and extra cream) at the end of the preparation, and don’t boil the soup once the cheese went in.

Do know that cheese contains lots of salt, so don’t add salt in the beginning but taste after having added the cheese and adjust the saltiness according to your taste.

Beer cheese soup recipe

• 1 big onion diced finely
• 2 carrots diced finely
• 1 green celery (without leaves) diced finely
• olive oil to fry
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 pints (2 liter) chicken stock: freshly made or from your freezer
• 2 potatoes, cut in small cubes
• 1 oz (30 gram) cornstarch: dilute in a few spoons of cold water or cold chicken stock
• 1 small bottle of your beer of choice (11 fl oz – 330ml) (substitute with your favorite dark beer)
• total amount of 16 oz (500 gram) of cheese
• for garnish: cayenne or chili flakes

How to make this easy beer cheese soup

1. Take a very large pot (the freshly opened beer will foam a lot when you add it in the soup, so be prepared and start with a large pot), heat some olive oil and saute the onion, leek, celery and carrots for a few minutes.
2. Add black pepper and saute further until the onions are soft and almost translucent.
3. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil.
4. Add the potatoes and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (until the potatoes are done).
5. Puree the vegetables in the stock with an immersion blender.
6. Add in the cornstarch mixture, stir well, bring to a boil and let all boil for one more minute.
7. Slowly poor in the beer and bring back to a boil.
8. Remove from the fire, add your cheese and puree once more with your immersion blender.
9. Taste, add extra salt when needed and your easy beer cheese soup is ready to be served with some extra cayenne sprinkled over it.