Something to warm you up from your nose to your toes
What do you do when you’re tired of turkey and you need a fast, easy meal that’s still going to fill you up? Easy, you grab a few kitchen staples and make this soup. We’ve got a warm delicious soup that’ll keep you warm all day long, without overheating your kitchen.
Ingredients:
4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 Yukon Gold potato, peeled and chopped
If you can't find any Yukon Golds at your grocery store an alternative would be Red Bliss potatoes, as these are the closest to the flavor of the Yukons for this recipe.
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups hard apple cider
1 cup half-and-half
2 bay leaves
2 thyme sprigs
2 Tbsp applejack or Calvados brandy
3/4 lb English Cheddar cheese, shredded
salt
fresh ground black pepper
Fried Shallots (click here to skip to the recipe)
Tools Needed: Cutting board, chef's knife, two large pots, a blender, a cheese grater and a straining spoon.
Yukon golden potatoes. Sadly they aren’t available by your blogger.
- In a large pot, melt 3 Tbsp of butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions, celery, potato and garlic and stir. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are softened, about 12 minutes.
Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, tumbling the vegetables around the pot so all sides are heated, until the flour is incorporated.
While still stirring constantly, gradually add the broth, cider and half-and-half to the pot. Raise the heat back up to medium-high, add the bay leaves and thyme and bring the pot to a boil.
-Turn your heat down to low and simmer for roughly ten minutes, to allow the flavors time to blend. Make sure to leave the pot uncovered during this time period.
Delicious Red Bliss potatoes.
-Remove the bay leaves and thyme sprigs from the soup and discard them. Remove the soup from the heat and let cool slightly, you want it still warm, but not piping hot.
-Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender. Pour the puree into a clean pot. Stir in the applejack. Off the heat, while whisking constantly, gradually add the cheese one handful at a time. Continue whisking until all the cheese is melted. Place over medium-low heat, stir in 1 tsp of salt and pepper to taste, and cook gently, stirring often, until heated through, about 10 minutes.
Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Serve, garnished with the fried shallots.
We know we tossed a red onion into the picture. It rolled its way into the shot
Fried Shallots
Ingredients:
Fresh shallots, thinly sliced
Oil - Peanut, canola or sunflower works well
A shallow pot for frying.
-In order to make your own fried shallots for this recipe, start off by slicing them thin, but not paper thin. Roughly .2 cm is a good size.
Soak your shallots in salt water after you slice them, for ten minutes or so. Then remove them and pat them dry so that the oil doesn't splash when you add them.
Take a pot and bring oil to heat. You want to be able to flick water at the surface and have it hiss but not boil. We advise a soybean oil for this.
Now drop in your shallots a few at a time and fry them until they're crisp and golden.
Alternatively, if you're not interested in making your own you should be able to find fried shallots in your nearest Asian grocery store.
It's really easy and you might find all sorts of things that you can pair with them once you've given it a chance.
There you go a soup to warm you up as the weather cools down and it's easy enough to make after work, so long as you have the fried shallots ready ahead of time.
If you enjoyed the recipe, let us know! If you made some changes to it, let us know that too over on our Facebook page.
From our home to yours, we hope you have a good week.