A smooth blend of beer and cheese makes a great soup. photo © New German Cooking
Beer and cheese have a natural affinity for each other. The nice sharp tang of the Emmenthaler cheese is cut with the mellow maltiness of the dark beer. You can substitute a lighter style of beer if you like with the same great results. Remember that the quality of the beer and cheese will affect the resulting soup. As with any simple recipes, the products you start with will inherently affect the final result.
Beer & Cheese Soup
SERVES FOUR TO SIX 3 bottles of dark beer such as Spaten Optimator, 36 oz. total 1 pound Emmenthaler or Gruyere cheese, grated 1 small onion, diced 1 small leek, cleaned and diced 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 1 small carrot, peeled and diced 1 rib of celery, diced 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 3 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only 1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt 1 teaspoon fresh black pepper 2 slices of rye bread, cut into cubes
Heat a medium stockpot or Dutch oven on medium heat. Add the butter, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and leeks and cook until the onions are translucent. Once the vegetables are softened add the rest of the ingredients except for the bread. Simmer the soup often and cook for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes add the cubed rye bread and continue to cook for another 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Use a blender and pour some of the soup into the pitcher of the blender. Only fill the pitcher up half way and loosely put the lid on it. If you put too much in or you put the lid on tight the heat will pop the top off and shoot hot soup all over the place. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen new cooks do this, even after being warned. It’s not pretty. Turn the blender on low and process for two minutes. Do this in as many batches as it takes to puree all of the soup. Put back into the Dutch oven and heat it up. Serve with pretzel sticks or garnish with some rye croutons immediately.
