Cheddar Beer Soup (by Brandon)

Being a homebrewer of beer, I try to find any chance I can to showcase a great beer as an ingredient in food recipe. Aimee has been doubting the ability of beer as a worthy ingredient to any dish so I decided to make a soup with a full 12oz of beer poured in. Use a good dark beer(Turbodog or any other brown ale, Sierra Nevada Porter, etc.) to get a real flavor of the malts and grains in the beer.

By the way, Aimee ended up really enjoying the soup.

Ingredients – Serves 6-10

• 1 1/2 cups diced scallions

• 1 cup diced carrots

• 1 cup diced celery

• 2tsp fine chopped garlic

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 cups milk

• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth

• 1 12oz bottle of dark beer

• 2 Tbsp  Worcestershire sauce

• 1 tsp mustard powder

• 1 lb extra-sharp Cheddar, grated

• 4 bacon slices, cooked and chopped

• salt/pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt butter in medium pot over medium heat. Add scallions, carrots, celery garlic, and bay leaf, stirring  often until the vegetables begin to soften.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low and pour flour over the vegetables, stirring often enough so the flour doesn’t burn in the pot, for 3 minutes.
3. Add milk, broth, and beer in sequence, stirring thoroughly for 5 minutes. Add Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and mustard.
4. Add cheese a handful at a time, stirring after each addition, making sure the cheese is completely melted. Discard bay leaf once all cheese is added and melted.
5. Serve with bacon and garnish with extra, diced scallions.