Before my sister and I got sick, we’d planned to make a beer cheese soup. It sounded like a great excuse to drink my husband’s beer while he’s visiting his family, not to mention a good way to use up the leftover ham from Thanksgiving. (I don’t know why more people don’t simply freeze their holiday leftovers — it makes using it at your own pace so much easier, and lets you NOT get absolutely sick of something!)
Incidentally, we bought some Wisconsin cheese for this soup – now that we live practically in Wisconsin, it’s readily available, and it’s really some of the best quality cheese we can get around here for the price. Yum. This is the soup you use the good block cheese for, not Kraft shredded. We don’t have a food processor, so we hand shredded the cheese; my sister shredded while I chopped the veggies, and we got done at about the same time.
Beer Cheese Soup
- 1/2 C (1 stick) butter
- 1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped
- 2-3 carrots, chopped
- 3-4 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 C all-purpose flour
- 2 C chicken broth
- 1 (12-ounce) beer of choice (we used Blue Moon, but the original suggested Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Blind Pig)
- 7-8 oz extra-sharp Cheddar, shredded
- 7-8 oz Swiss cheese, shredded
- 2 C half-and-half
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard (we toasted & ground 1/2 tsp of mustard seed instead)
- 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 pound of ham, diced
Melt butter in a stockpot over medium heat. Add chopped onion, carrot, and celery. Saute until softened. Add flour. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add chicken broth and beer. Heat until it comes to a boil. Slowly add cheese while stirring until just boiling and smooth. Add half-and-half, salt, dry mustard, cayenne, and Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat to low and cook until soup has thickened. Add diced ham and heat until the ham is warm. Serve hot, preferably with crusty bread.