Cheddar-Ale Soup

From EatingWell: December 2006

Our cheese- and beer-lover's potato soup has only a fraction of the fat and sodium of a traditional recipe. We use low-fat milk and only a little oil and keep the flavor strong with zesty, sharp Cheddar cheese. Precooked diced potatoes, which you can get at many supermarkets, keep this recipe super speedy. Regular diced red potatoes also work—you'll just need to increase the cooking time.

READER'S COMMENT:

"Making this soup only using the recipe is bland. However adding cayenne pepper kicks it up several notches. I also add more cheddar maybe a full 2 cups, i never measure, guesstimate. Bags of pre-cooked pots sound gross to me so I use only...

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19 Reviews for Cheddar-Ale Soup

01/11/2013

Anonymous

Very bland

Didn't taste cheese or beer when prepared as directed; had to doctor it up substantially with seasonings and Worcestershire; let it cook down until thicker to concentrate flavor and then added more beer; turned out to be edible, but would not make it again.

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12/11/2012

Anonymous

Recommends this recipe

Delicious With Some Edits :)

We did it by the book (using fresh potatoes) and the result was as reported by others, bland. So to jazz it up we added a significant more amount of cheese as well as some salt and chipotle powder. Final result.. AMAZING :) I would say try this recipe, tasting as you go to find what additions work best for you.

Pros: Easy

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11/10/2012

Anonymous

Recommends this recipe

Perfect, just what I was hoping for!

This soup was amazing! I made a number of adjustments based on personal taste and previous comments. The soup turned out phenomenal! It is soooo good and just what I was hoping for from a cheddar ale soup.
Details:
-added 1 shallot and 2 cloves of garlic to the chopped onion
-added a little crushed red pepper to the onion mix while it cooked
-used an excellently flavorful beer (Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale)
-used fresh red potatoes instead of frozen precooked
-used all beef broth instead of veg broth and water
-mashed to a lumpy texture
-used half & half instead of milk
-used excellent cheeses (7 oz block of dubliner, 8 0z block of aged extra sharp cheddar)
-at the end added 3 splashes of Worcestershire Sauce

Clearly, this is not the healthiest version now, but it is maybe the best cheddar ale soup I've ever had! No joke. Absolutely fantastic.

Pros: simple, delicious, easy to adapt

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10/29/2011

Anonymous

love this recipe!

I have so many potatoes in my root cellar, and needed to use up some milk, so I made this over the weekend. I love this recipe! Leftovers were great too.

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11/04/2010

Anonymous

Making this soup only using the recipe is bland. However adding cayenne pepper kicks it up several notches. I also add more cheddar maybe a full 2 cups, i never measure, guesstimate. Bags of pre-cooked pots sound gross to me so I use only Yukon gold approx. half a 5 lb. bag. Puree this soup makes it quite boring, leaving some soft potato chucks in it makes for variety. I also found adding chopped carrots, celery and onions was a nice touch. I have made this soup many many times; using the recipe exactly how it is is a great base and adding to it make this soup even better!!

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