Saturday, June 4, 2011

Iron Chef Wayfare!

The awesome folks over at Wayfare Foods sponsored our most recent Iron Chef competition at Animal Rights Coalition. I lost my crown to my protegé, Kaylynn, who made a pretty rockin' chili with nacho cheese sauce. However; since this is my blog, this is all about my beer cheese soup recipe.

Beer cheese soup

(We Can’t Say It’s) Beer Cheese Soup


(Makes about 8-10 servings)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy margarine
½ tsp salt
1 leek; washed, trimmed, chopped fine
1 large carrot, diced small
3 vegan chicken broth cubes, dissolved in 6-8 cups boiling water
½ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp dry mustard
½ tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
12 oz. dark German beer
2 containers Wayfare Foods’s “We Can’t Say It’s Cheese” cheddar spread
Salt and white pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, melt the oil and margarine together. On low-medium heat, cook the leek and carrot with the salt until soft and caramelized, but not browned. Lower the heat if needed. In a large measuring cup, whisk the flour, mustard, and Worcestershire with 1 ½ cups of the broth. Use an immersion blender if the flour clumps up. Add to the pot along with the remaining broth. Whisk until well incorporated if you like chunks, but this is a good time to blend the soup with an immersion blender, or by batches in a regular blender. Add beer and cheese. Turn the heat on low and cook, stirring often until the cheese is melted and blended in. Taste for salt and white pepper. Serve with pumpernickel rye bread, and grilled vegan kielbasa.

I'm so not upset that I lost because the new vegan that picked me for the vegan mentor program took home the prize! Also, I have a ton of leftover German beer that I should probably not drink whilst blogging. Urp.

2 comments:

foodfeud said...

Grilled vegan kielbasa sounds great. I had never heard of beer-cheese soup until my cousin moved to the midwest but maybe one day I will try it. Sounds like a fun time even if you didn't win..but you did by proxy!

VeganCraftastic said...

That sounds really good! We were going to go to that but ended up being out of town that day.