Vegan Beer Cheese Soup. It’s like beer cheese dip, but it’s soup. You gotta focus. We’re shifting into soup mode. This one requires you to get yourself a six pack of beer. Four for the soup and two for you. Now of course, N/A beer is completely acceptable for my non-imbibing friends. You party just as hard.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and tell me what’s your favorite thing to buy at Woodman’s.

Vegan Beer Cheese Soup. No, there isn’t lactose in Spotted Cow.

IMG_9399 2.JPG — VEGAN BEER CHEESE SOUP

prep time: 20 minutes
cook time: 40 minutes

This one requires you to whip up a mirepoix and drown it in beer and cheese. Top with bacon, red pepper, chives or popcorn if you’re into that sort of thing.

Let’s build this soup from the ground up. To start, the bacon and the mirepoix.

What you’ll need:

vegan bacon
olive oil
beer (lager, n/a or GF)
vegan butter
celery
white onion
carrots
garlic
red pepper

Rinse off like four celery hearts thoroughly and pat dry. Rinse the carrots too. Let’s say four carrots. Peel the carrots, onion and garlic. Dice up your carrots, celery, garlic, onion and red pepper.

Thumbs up. Feel free to use more garlic. This is like 6 cloves.

Separately, dice up a whole bunch of vegan bacon. These are getting cooked first. Add some olive oil to a stockpot/large pot and get the flame up to medium high. Add all of your bacon stuff and stir so everything is coated in oil. Toss a knob of vegan butter in there too, it’s a Wisconsin dish.

I guess you could just use bacon bits but whatever.

Let your bacon stuff cook out until browned and crispy. If it gets stuck to the bottom of the pot. fear not. Add a splash of beer and that will deglaze your pot nicely. Once the beer cooks out and everything is crispy, pull the bacon out of the pot and set on a paper-towel-lined plate. Wipe out most of the fat rendered from the bacon, some vegan bacon leaves behind a lot of oil and that will affect your final product. Leave a little though.

Now that you have crispy bacon stuff set aside, add all of your chopped vegetables into the pot. Toss a little oil in there too and enjoy all those smells. Next, seasoning!

I should just scrap this recipe and just pickle all of this. That would be cool!

What you’ll need:

salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
dried thyme
dried fennel
cayenne pepper
smoked paprika
mustard seed
liquid aminos
liquid smoke
hot sauce
more beer
vegetable broth
flour (all purpose, or oat flour for GF sub)

Okay, I realize that’s a lot of seasoning but it’s worth it.

Add 1-2 teaspoons of each of the seasonings to your liking. And a splash each of the aminos, liquid smoke and hot sauce.

Get all that stuff mixed up and bring up the flame a touch. When everything is soft and beautiful, add a generous pinch of flour and stir that up and let the flour cook out. Add six ounces of beer. Allow that to cook down and then add six more.

Then guess what, add another six ounces and let that cook down too. Then once more. Now you have two beers in a pot of chopped vegetables. Let this cook down once again for a few minutes and once reduced by a lil bit, add 16 ounces of vegetable broth.

Forgive me culinary overlords for I am out of homemade stock.

Now you are really shifting into soup mode. Next, it’s time for the most important ingredient. Cheese. Just kidding, it’s bay leaves. No really, it’s cheese.

What you’ll need:

bay leaves
vegan cheese (roughly 18 ounces)
oat creamer
vegan butter
more beer

Add your bay leaves to the soup.

Next, get out your finest vegan cheese. For this recipe, I used wedges of Cheeze & Thank You Mustard Seed Smoked Gouda, Giardiniera Jack, & Mozzarella Capri. C&TY launches into all midwest Whole Foods stores October 2021 so keep an eye out. You can also grab C&TY stuff right here. This isn’t paid/promo, I just think she’s awesome and makes quality vegan cheese.

Using either a grater or knife, get all that vegan cheese chopped up. In a pot much smaller than the one your soup is in, add a knob of vegan butter and all of the cheese you just cut. Add a splash of beer and oat milk and stir that up. Let it cook out til it’s smooth and homogenous.

Now your cheese mixture should be nice and smooth. Add another splash of beer to it to further smooth it out. I think we’re on two and a half bottles or so.

Now fish out those bay leaves from your soup. Add your cheese mixture to the soup and stir that up. Bring the flame up and add the remainder of the third beer. Stir that up and let it cook with the top off. Do some dishes in the meantime.

Check the soup every so often and stir and needed. Crack open beer #4 and add half of it with a splash of oat milk. Bring the pot up to a boil, cover partially and reduce to a simmer. Add the other six ounces of beer in about 20 minutes and take the lid off.

If your soup is still too thicc, fret not. Add a few ounces of water and let it continue to simmer. Next, completely optional, time to blend the soup up. If you have an immersion blender, blow the dust off of it and put it to work. You can also add batches to a blender bit by bit too.

Now you have beautiful, silky smooth beer cheese soup. You’re free to garnish it with popcorn or something but as follows was my method.

What you’ll need:

a beer to pair with your soup, preferably the same beer
red pepper
the bacon from earlier
chives
pretzel buns (absolutely)
pepper

Dice up some chives and red pepper. Ladle your soup into a bowl. Top with the bacon from earlier, red pepper, chives and freshly cracked black pepper. Dice up some pretzel and add that up there too, fuck it why not.

Serve alongside the same beer you’ve been cooking with. Please sponsor me, New Glarus.

Feel free to serve this soup in a stiein.

If you enjoyed this recipe, share it with your friends. Share it with New Glarus. I don’t run ads and word-of-mouth is my biggest means of exposure. Share my instagram @draggedthroughthegarden with your friends and cook some of my stuff. Good soup.