Swiss Cheese Beer Soup

 Then it’s easy peasy for a bit. Let the veggies get smooshy!

 Have a sip or two of beer before you add it. I chose something a little heavier to bring out the flavor of the beer more.

I used a whisk when adding the skim milk (not half and half to make it healthier) and I think I needed a wire or more sturdy whisk. I ended up with a lot of clumps to break apart. Eventually it smoothed out.

And I used regular yellow mustard instead of ground mustard – didn’t have any in the house. I did add some garlic powder to bump up the flavor too.

I got a workout shredding the cheeses, but I have heard that when making soups, you do not use pre-shredded. It has an anti-clumping agent added to it that makes it less likely to melt nicely.

 As you can see, mine melted nicely!

 Tada!

 For me, the soup seemed a bit watery, so I pulled out my trusty corn starch and mixed about a 1/4 cup in. Probably too much in the long run, but I like a thick soup.

 And I added more pepper, a little chili powder for zip and it was set to eat.

After having it sit for a day in the fridge, I did still think it was a little clumpy, so I warmed it up to room temperature and ran my whipper-doodle (immersion blender) through it create a smoother texture.

You could definitely add bacon, ham, Italian sausage to this soup to take it to the next level. I like it just like this. I think a nice rye bread would be wonderful with it. I just had some french bread on the side. But this recipe goes on the “make again” list.