You’ll want to create this champion Beer Cheese Broccoli Bacon Bread Bowl Soup for a Super Bowl Day of football. It’s delicious, can be made the day before and kept in the refrigerator until your Super Bowl Party.
Of course, you can create a hot spicy version if you include the optional peppers as noted in the Ingredients list.
This Beer Cheese Broccoli Bacon Bread Bowl Soup is creamy, with just enough texture from the finely diced veggies for a hearty meal. The bread bowl serves as a delicious accompaniment and works well as a dipper into the soup.
It’s easy to put together with a little planning. Simply sauté the bacon first and drain on a paper towel. Cook the diced veggies in the bacon drippings, make your thickener, pour in the beer, mix in the milk, spices…and finally the freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Top it off with popcorn or shredded cheese and enjoy with all your football buddies. There, you have the makings of a delicious meal in a bread bowl.
This recipe is enough for 4 medium bread bowls:
To serve a larger crowd, just double or triple this recipe.
Prepare your soup pot:
I use a 3-5-quart saucepan for making this delicious soup.
Gather up the Soup Ingredients:
4 Bacon slices, sauteed and rough chopped
¾ C Carrots, cleaned, diced
¾ C Onion, cleaned, diced
¾ C Celery, cleaned, diced
½ C Pepper, sweet, cleaned, diced
½ C Broccoli florets, chopped small
1 Jalapeno pepper, cleaned, diced (optional)
3 Cloves Garlic, diced
¼ t Salt
1/8 t Pepper
1/8 t Cayenne pepper (optional)
½ of 1/3 C Butter
½ of 1/3 C Flour
8 oz Beer, nothing heavy or dark
1 ½ C Chicken broth
1 C Milk or ¾ C Heavy Cream + ¼ C Water
2 t Dijon Mustard
1 t Worcestershire sauce
½ t Dry mustard
½ t Hot pepper sauce (optional)
1 ½ Sharp cheddar cheese, freshly shredded (12 oz block)
3 C Popcorn, fresh popped, for garnish
Get cooking:
-Shred the sharp cheddar cheese so you have freshly shredded cheese from a block to add at the end of these directions. Set aside. (Sometimes the already shredded cheese in a bag does not melt into the soup since it is sometimes coat to keep it from sticking together. Sometimes that keeps it from melting with other ingredients. So, I make sure I freshly shred cheese from a block.)
-Sauté the bacon until crisp. Set it aside to drain. Rough chop it when cooled.
-Add the carrots, onion, celery to the bacon drippings in the fry pan and cook on low medium until the onions are transparent.
-Stir in the garlic, peppers, broccoli, pepper, salt and cook one minute.
-Add butter, stirring constantly.
-Sprinkle in the flour and stir until golden brown, about a minute.
-Stir in the beer, stirring to thicken, for 1-2 minutes.
-Add the broth and milk, bringing it to a boil.
-Turn the heat down and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
-Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard and hot sauce.
-Remove from the heat.
-Stir in a third of the freshly shredded cheese, stirring to melt it.
-Add another third of the cheese, stirring to melt.
-Then add the last third and stir until all the cheese is melted into the soup.
-Serve this delicious in a bread bowl and top each bowl of soup with some rough chopped sauteed bacon and fresh popped popcorn.
Choose a few garnishes:
-Take a lesson from French Onion Soup crowd and place a round slice of garlic toast on top of the soup in the bread bowl. Lay a thick slice of your pepperjack cheese on top of the toast. Place it under the broiler and let brown to a nice golden color. (But don’t leave it alone – it needs to be watched constantly so it doesn’t burn.)
-Roast some broccoli florets and lay them on top of the soup as a green garnish.
-Stick a thick pretzel rod into the soup. Then slide a soft pretzel down the rod for a fun presentation! Serve a spicy mustard on the side.
-With a couple of wooden skewers stack salami cubes and little smokie cooked sausages separated by pimento stuffed green olives, cheese cubes and jalapeno pepper slices for hot accessories.
-Serve up a charcuterie board of garnishes people can choose from for the soup – popcorn, jalapeno pepper slices, cheese and salami cubes, olives, jalapeno pepper slices, hot sauces plus some soft pretzels for dipping. Have some caramel popcorn on the side for a sweet touch.
Bread bowl soups are delicious for any party, especially a Super Bowl Party. Whenever you serve yours, “Bake your own Memories!”