Sunday's Soup/A Soup With Options

Little Mr. Berkley has now been with us for 2 weeks. He is the happiest dog I have ever seen. Believe it or not, he actually wags his tail while he sleeps :) What a gift!

Back in May, my husband and I spent 3 days touring around Wisconsin, visiting creameries, and tasting cheese. In my book, heaven! We try to do this about once a year. It's such fun. One of my favorite creameries is Union Star Cheese Factory. It's a family owned business that has been in existence since 1911. They make a 5 year aged cheddar that is my absolute favorite.  

I had given a friend of mine a block of the cheddar. She had thrown away the wrapper, so didn't know where it came from, but wanted to share the information with a friend of hers. So, I looked up the site. While I was there, I noticed that they had a recipe section. I like recipes :) Come to find out, they had a recipe for a Beer Cheese Soup. Now, typically, I would have passed right over the recipe, but what caught my attention was the list of ingredients with all the vegetables. Really?!! I always thought that Beer Cheese Soup was just that, beer and cheese. While I do love cheese, I absolutely hate beer, at least to drink it. But, there are a few recipes where I will use beer. So, I decided to give it a try.

The vegetable ingredients consist of carrots, green pepper, onions, celery, and mushrooms. You can find the recipe HERE.  

Since I had not made the soup, I followed the directions pretty much as written, but with a couple of exceptions. Rather than saute the vegetables in butter, I used 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I also deleted the ham, so mine is a vegetarian version. 

Once the vegetables are tender, but still crisp, flour and cornstarch are added  to thicken the soup. The recipe says to stir the flour/cornstarch into the vegetables and continue to cook for another 3 minutes. You'll find that it seems quite thick at this point.  

Rather than chicken broth, I used a vegetable broth. Milk is also added to the mixture. I decided to use my hand held blender and slightly puree the vegetables. So, they are somewhat pureed, but still have texture. Once the spices have been added, the soup is delicious without the cheese and the beer. So, you could actually stop here and enjoy the soup as is.   

I added the cheese and only 1/2 cup of the beer. 1/2 cup of the beer blended nicely into the soup, an entire cup, in my opinion would have been too much.

What I ended up with was a velvety smooth, delicious soup.

Union Star does have a mail order service, but they only ship cheese from October-April. I sent some to a friend of mine who now lives in Galveston, Texas, but grew up in northern Wisconsin. She said that it tasted like home. Their 5 year aged cheddar crumbles when sliced and has a true sharp cheddar taste. Delicious!

Even if you can't get the Union Star Cheese, get a really good sharp cheddar from your grocer and give the soup a try. A wonderful treat! Just in case you missed it, you can find the recipe HERE :)    

Sunday's Soup

My absolute favorite soup is French Onion Soup. The only problem is that the typical soup has a beef base to the broth. I did find a French Onion soup at Trader Joe's that is very good and has a vegetable broth base. It's in their frozen food section. All you have to do is remove the plastic and pop the frozen cube into an oven safe bowl and throw it in the oven. It even includes the cheese! In a pinch, this is great, but it doesn't have the robust taste that I love so much.
I found this recipe from Closet Cooking and it is exactly what I was looking for, http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/03/guinness-french-onion-soup.html?m=1 What I discovered is that there are 2 key ingredients that I was looking for, the Guinness Irish Stout and the grainy mustard and not the beef based broth. I now have a perfect vegetarian version of my favorite soup.
  

 The recipe calls for 4 pounds of onions. This is not a mistake. Initially it will seem like a lot of onions and it is, but they will cook down considerably.  

 

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 pounds onions, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 cups Guinness or other Irish Stout
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 1/2 inch thick slices of day old bread, toasted
• 1 cup white cheddar, shredded

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat, add the onions and cook until completely caramelized and golden brown, about 1 hour, mixing every 10-15 minutes and adding water or Guinness to deglaze the pan as needed to prevent burning.
2. Add the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
3. Add the butter, let it melt, mix in the flour and let it cook for 2-4 minutes.
4. Add the stout and deglaze the pan.
5. Add the broth, Worcestershire sauce, grainy mustard, bay leaves, salt and pepper, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Ladle the soup into oven-proof bowls on a baking sheet, top with the sliced bread and cheese and broil until cheese melts, about 1-3 minutes.

 

I did not use slices of bread in my soup. It is much easier to eat if you  break up the toasted bread slices. Be sure to toast the bread as the bread will be too soppy otherwise. 

Ladle in the soup over the bread cubes and top with shredded cheese. I used a nice Irish white cheddar.

Be sure to use an oven safe bowl and also be sure to watch the soup as it will brown quickly. Brown is great, burned (or on fire like I have been known to do) is not!! 

Be sure to check out the Closet Cooking website, http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/03/17-st-patricks-day-recipes.html#more . He has posted a pile of what looks to be wonderful recipes for St Patrick's Day. I just may give the Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake a try!!!

Happy Sunday!

Rhonda