Food Fridays: Potato beer-cheese soup

So I had this post slated for Dec. 13th, but I got a teensy bit distracted by the whole omg-i'm-getting-engaged thing ;) And then it was pre-holiday craziness on the 20th, and December clothes budget posting on the 27th, and here we are. But I guess that's okay, because it is freaking COLD outside throughout most of the U.S. (and Canada, I can only assume). So you should probably make this to warm yoself up, like, now. When you do make this recipe, you will understand my need to deeply and profusely apologize for the delay. I'm not even kidding. This is one of the best--and easiest--soups I've made, probably ever.


I honestly just started drooling.
With a lot of potato-based soups, you have to puree the potatoes after you cook them to create a smooth, starchy base. Not so with this one; it's chunky and delicious. Which is good because my blender is crap, I don't have an immersion blender, and my food processor is most definitely not liquid-tight. Why yes, I have splattered my walls during an ambitious attempt at another potato-based soup.

Now normally, I adapt recipes a bit and post the adapted version in full here. But with this dish, I pretty much followed it to a T. I think I omitted the carrot and celery, because we didn't have any, and sprinkled a little dried celery seed over the potatoes as they cooked.

The one thing I didn't really like about the recipe linked above is that it just called for any "light-colored ale." Now, I'm not a big beer drinker and was about to just use good ol' Budweiser or something. But guess what. That's a lager. And apparently, that makes a difference. So I sent Matt out to find something, and he came back with the beauty pictured above: an Agave Wheat ale from Breckenridge Brewery. Wheat beers are one of the few styles I enjoy, so I had one with dinner and it was delicious. If you can't find this exact brew, any non-flavored wheat beer (i.e., no fruit flavors) or even a more bitter IPA would do just fine.

Oh, and one last tip: Make sure you get a good, crusty bread or baguette to go with this. I am not exaggerating when I say you will want to soak up every last drop from the bottom of your bowl! Matt and I literally collapsed onto the couch after dinner; it took several minutes to muster up the energy to clean up afterwards. Food coma for the win!