Today, spud duty calls – as it so often does – and I will be busy seeing and sampling all that the SPUDS.ie Tastefest has to offer. I will, in due course, report on the tuberous goings-on but, in the meantime – and lest you should find yourself feeling sad and spudless – I took the precaution of making some potato soup. This one has added beer, guaranteed to keep you cheery ’til I get back.
Potato and Beer Soup
This soup is a simple enough gathering of potatoes, onion, garlic and celery, but with beer for added body, and perked up by the addition of mustard, soy sauce and some grated cheese. It’s a recipe I did for the crew over at potato.ie and you can see what I had to say on the subject of soup – potato and otherwise – over here.
You’ll need:
- vegetable oil for frying
- 2 large red onions (approx. 400g), finely chopped
- 4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 medium-sized potatoes (approx. 600g), washed, skins left on, and finely diced
- 4 large sticks of celery (approx. 200g), finely diced
- 700ml light veg stock
- 500ml red ale
- 3 tblsp soy sauce
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dijon or other mustard
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp sherry vinegar or to taste (or use sherry or lemon juice)
- approx. 50g mature cheddar cheese, grated (or use another flavoursome hard cheese, like Gruyère or Glebe Brethan)
You’ll also need:
- A hand-held or other blender for blending the soup.
The Steps:
- Place a large saucepan over a medium heat. When hot add vegetable oil to coat the pan. Add the onions and fry for around 10 minutes or until softened and starting to brown a little at the edges.
- Add the garlic, stir and fry for around a minute, then add the potatoes and celery and fry for another 5 minutes more.
- Add the stock, ale, soy sauce and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for around 25-30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
- Remove from the heat, remove the bay leaf and blend the mixture using a handheld or other blender, leaving some chunks if you like.
- Add mustard and black pepper to taste and more soy sauce if you think it needs it. Finish with a splash of sherry vinegar – only a small amount is needed to brighten the taste so gently does it – or you can try sherry or lemon juice for different finishing effects.
- The soup will be fairly thick, so thin as desired with boiling water. To serve, ladle into bowls and sprinkle a little grated cheese on top. Some cheese toasties alongside would make it even better.
The Variations:
- You could, to mix a metaphor, beef this up by adding some cooked ham or bacon. You could also experiment with different beers.
The Results:
- Serves around 6
Greetings Spud this will be a good recipe to keep on hand for the long winter ahead. I’m not sure if I will add the beer to my system while cooking the soup or add to stock as recommended. Perhaps both.
Thanks and Cheers,
Brian.
P.S. taking tips for tourists could use some input.
Oh, I think that both might just be the way to go on that one Brian :) Popped over your way to throw in my 2c worth of tourist tips – hope it helps!
Oooh! I like this recipe. Must try it out on the family. Would you use floury spuds for this?
Thought you might be interested by this one Caroline – and you’ve got plenty of beers to experiment with down your way :) The potatoes I used were floury and they worked well – they’ll disintegrate more quickly, but that’s fine, as the soup will be blended anyway.