You can halve this recipe if you like, it makes a lot of soup, but I almost never make small batches so that I can eat it for lunch for a few days and freeze a bunch.
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Roasted Rutabaga Beer Cheese Soup
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
So let’s talk about this soup. It’s got beer, it’s got cheese, and it’s got buttery roasted rutabagas and parsnips. That’s enough vegetables to allow you to feel like it’s good for you.
Ingredients
- 1 large rutabaga, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch pieces
- 4-5 small-medium parsnips, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch pieces
- 1-2 tbsp (15-30 ml) olive oil
- 2 large vidalia onions, diced small
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 - 12 oz (355 ml) bottles of beer, preferable a full flavored lager or ale
- 6 cups (1.4 L) vegetable stock (use the good stuff that comes in the cartons, not the 99 cent cans, you want the full flavor of the vegetable stock)
- 2 sticks ( 1 cup / 225 g) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) flour
- 8 cups (1.9 L) whole milk
- 2 large bay leaves
- 3 1/2 lbs (1.6 kg) cheese, shredded (I used a mixture of Monterrey jack, white cheddar, and extra sharp cheddar)
- 3-4 tbsp (45-60 ml) chipotle-adobo sauce, depending on how spicy you want it
- 2-3 tsp salt, to taste
- 1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- few handfuls of italian parsely, minced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Toss the diced rutabagas and parsnips with olive oil to coat and season well with some of the salt and pepper. Spread evenly on a lined baking sheet and roast until browned and cooked through, about 45 minutes – 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, in a large stockpot or dutch oven melt 4 tbsp of the butter (1/2 stick) over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves and sweat until the onions are very soft and translucent, about 20-30 minutes (if you are doing a half recipe, this probably wont take as long). At this point I opted to remove the onions with a slotted spoon into a bowl and add back into the soup a bit later. I felt that making a good roux would be easier if I didn’t have to worry about mashing up the onions.
- So, turn off the heat, and using a slotted spoon, remove the onions to a bowl and set aside, leaving whatever liquids are left in the pan. In a small saucepan, gently heat your milk over medium-low heat. You do not need to boil it, you just want it hot to add to your roux. Add the rest of the butter to your stockpot and melt over low heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add the flour and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly until light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the hot milk and continue cooking until it is completely combined and slightly thickened, just a minute or two.
- In a few additions, add the cheese to the milk mixture and stir over low heat until cheese has completely melted. Add the beer, vegetable stock, and adobo sauce, and bring to a very gentle simmer. You want to be careful not to scorch your cheese. Add your onions and roasted vegetables to the soup, season with salt and pepper, and cook over low heat about 30-40 minutes until soup is nice and thick.
- Make sure to taste the soup a few times while it is simmering, you may need to add more salt and pepper, or perhaps some more adobo sauce. You want to have a little heat at the end, but not have it overwhelmingly taste like chipotle peppers. Also, if the beer you used is bitter (I used an IPA the first time I tried this soup) you can add a few big spoonfuls of sugar to balance it out.
- Garnish with fresh parsley, and serve with some n ice crusty bread. To take the soup to another level, grill some bratwursts and serve them sliced on top of the soup. It almost makes you feel like you are in Wisconsin, which is a good thing entirely.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 820
If You Liked This Recipe, You’ll Love These
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is rutabaga and how does it taste in this soup?
Rutabaga is a root vegetable — a cross between a turnip and cabbage — with a mildly sweet, earthy flavor. The recipe calls for peeling and dicing 1 large rutabaga into 1/4-inch pieces, then roasting at 425°F for 45 minutes to 1 hour until browned and caramelized before adding to the cheese and beer base.
What type of beer works best, and what if my beer is too bitter?
The recipe recommends “a full flavored lager or ale.” The instructions note from the author’s own IPA experience: “if the beer you used is bitter… you can add a few big spoonfuls of sugar to balance it out.” The chipotle-adobo sauce already adds smoky heat, so a very bitter beer can easily unbalance the soup. 
The recipe calls for 3 1/2 lbs of cheese — is that really right?
Yes — this is a very large-batch soup using 2 full bottles of beer, 6 cups of vegetable stock, and 8 cups of whole milk. The article explains the author “almost never makes small batches so that I can eat it for lunch for a few days and freeze a bunch.” The recipe notes you can halve it, which would bring the cheese down to about 1 3/4 lbs.
Can I freeze this soup?
The article explicitly mentions making large batches “to freeze a bunch,” so yes. When reheating a cheese-based soup from frozen, do so gently over low heat, stirring frequently to bring the emulsion back together.
The earliest known chemical evidence of barley beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran.-
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