RECIPE: Savory Cheese Soup (reject)

This recipe hails from the June 2000 issue of Quick Cooking magazine. I have categorized it as a reject.

It scored points because of the number of fresh ingredients it included; also for the fact that all of the ingredients were easily available at ALDI, which is where I do most of our shopping.

It lost points because of the high calorie/fat content. And also that it didn't taste all that great.

My husband, Meelyn and Aisling all said they liked it, but that it needed something, namely potatoes. Which would turn it into a savory potato soup. But I already have a tried-and-true potato soup recipe that doesn't have nearly the fat and calorie content of this one, so adieu, savory soup.

I served this soup with garlic bread and a green salad.

RECIPE:
3 cans of chicken broth (or six cups of chicken stock)
1 small onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
1/4 cup sweet red pepper, chopped
2 T butter
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cold water
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened and cut into chunks
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 12-oz can od beer

Optional toppings: croutons, bacon bits, chopped green onion

To make this soup, all you had to do was put the first eight ingredients in the slow-cooker and cook them for 7-8 hours, which seemed pretty excessive for broth, celery, onion, carrot and red pepper. After eight hours, you were to stir together the flour and water into a smooth paste and then add it to the ingredients in the slow cooker, replacing the lid and cooking until the soup thickened, which it never did. Half an hour before serving, you were to add the softened cream cheese and the shredded cheddar so that they could melt. The shredded cheddar did; the cream cheese didn't, leaving what looked like little curdled lumps in the bowls. It was not an appetizing presentation.

The resulting soup tasted just....all right. It wasn't the kind of soup that made you think that spooning dirty water out of a mud puddle would taste better, but it wasn't the kind of soup that made you think soup-ish thoughts: in my mind, a good soup is hearty, comforting and rich on the tongue, whether it's a clear soup or a cream soup. This soup didn't really do any of that, and you'd think it would, with all that cream cheese in it, wouldn't you?

The lack of heartiness is undoubtedly what inspired my husband and the girls to say it needed potatoes. I personally felt the lack of meat and wondered aloud if the addition of smoked sausage would make it better, but decided that it would only add more calories and fat; the sausage would be good, but it wouldn't be good enough to make that compensation.