As a food blogger, you have to give credit where credit is due and not use someone’s recipe trying to pass it off as your own (Major pet peeve of mine. You see it happening a lot).

I happened upon this recipe for Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese Soup at Sargento and hope they don’t mind me borrowing it! I doubt I can buy their cheddar here in the Netherlands, much less get my hands on reduced sodium cheese, so I just used regular cheddar instead. I love the recipes they have listed there!

This soup combines beer and cheddar. Need I say more? I mean, c’mon, it had my guy drooling just from hearing the recipe directions! I had to make this.

I made a few changes, though:

1) I added corn. I love corn.

2) I added crispy bacon. I love bacon.

3) I added onion. It’s the right thing to do.

I served the soup with an enormous amount of crusty French bread and it was a wonderful lunch. The soup somewhat reminded me of cheese fondue. Delicious!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 oz butter (1/4 cup)
2 cups sharp cheddar (grated)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 small onion
1 cup corn
2 cups milk
1 cup beer
1 1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
pepper

Optional: Bacon or garlic croutons

Directions:

The happy lot. Heineken! Like you expected anything else from a Dutch girl, right?

Sargento used croutons, I opted for crispy bacon. Bacon rights all the wrongs in this world.

Two more things I’ve added: half a can of leftover corn from the night before. And a finely minced small onion.

Heat the butter and add the onion when the butter is still melting. Cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, but make sure not to let the onion brown.

Add the mustard powder.

And 1/4 cup all-purpose flour.

Stir well and cook the roux for a minute.

Pour in 2 cups of a milk and stir like a madman. I wanted a slightly thicker soup, if you don’t, add another 1/2 a cup of milk.

This photo will be enough to make grown men cry! Pour 1 cup of the beer into the soup. You can replace the beer with dry white wine, water or even chicken broth.

Season with the cayenne pepper—this will give a hint of color—Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir in the corn and let the soup simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the cheese. You might as well stick it on your thighs straight away, but oh boy, this is the good stuff! I simply adore cheese soup.

Stir well and let the cheese melt. Give the soup another 5 minutes over low to medium heat.

Check the seasoning. Ladle the soup into pretty bowls and top each bowl with crumbled up bacon and some chopped up parsley.

Want to make the men in your life happy and convert even those that don’t care for soup? Make this soup, stat! It’s fast, simple, and tastes like a million bucks.