Beer Cheese Soup

Veggie base makes this soup delicious and nutritious.

• Ready In: 3 hrs 10 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 4 bowls

Ingredients

• 4  cups water
• 1  medium onion (chopped)
• 2  cups celery (chopped)
• 2  cups carrots (chopped)
• 1  tablespoon  better than boullion  vegetable stock base
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 2  tablespoons arrowroot
• 8  ounces  grated cheese
• 1⁄2 cup  light beer

Directions

1. In a medium pot combine water, onion, celery, carrots, bouillon, salt and arrowroot powder. Heat on high until it boils, stirring to mix in bouillon and arrowroot. Note, you can use any bouillon with this soup, I prefer the vegetable one.
2. Once the mixture starts boiling, turn down the heat and simmer until all the vegetables are very soft. Generally I let it simmer for several hours.
3. Once the vegetables are very soft, blend them until smooth. I use an immersion blender for this purpose. Primarily because I have one -- and it is fun ;) You can also pour the vegetable soup into a blender and puree that way. Put the pot back on the stove over a medium heat.
4. Add grated cheese. I use half an 8 oz brick of Cabot Farms Pepper Jack and half an 8 oz brick of Cabot Farms Sharp cheddar, but any cheese you like will do just fine. Feel free to add more cheese if you want -- you can never have too much cheese. Stir to melt the cheese. Sometimes I use the immersion blender here too -- to combine the cheese and yes -- it is fun ;)
5. Once the cheese is incorporated, add in the beer. Keep stirring over a medium heat to incorporate the beer. This step can be omitted if you like but then you can't call it a "Beer Cheese Soup" Of course, you can call it "Cheese Soup".