Le Cellier Cheddar Cheese Soup

In this house, we are huge Disney fans. So much so that I am sure you have seen my various Mickey Mouse measuring tools and various Disney kitchen things. Well the hubby and I now live approximately 5 minutes from the Magic Kingdom and Epcot parks, even though we grew up in Ohio. Yes, we love it that much!

So naturally we love the food at the Walt Disney World resort. But it can get a little pricey at times. I decided though, to see if I could dig up the recipe for one of my hubby's favorite dishes on property, Le Cellier's Cheddar Cheese Soup!

Now if you've ever tried to get a reservation at Le Cellier, the only table service restaurant in Epcot's Canada, you know that it generally sells out 120 days ahead of time! Trying to get in there is like trying to play the fiddle naked with a cheese grater.

Or something like that.

So if you'd like to get a little taste of Walt Disney World at home, just follow this surprisingly easy recipe!

Let's get started, shall we?

As you can see, there are quite a few ingredients to this one. Everything from bacon to carrots to beer?! Yes, that's right. Beer.

Moosehead Lager to be exact. A really nice Canadian beer. You could use other types of beer for this, sure. But why would you want to? The Moosehead beer is what Le Cellier uses, and that's what we're going to use here!

Let's prep our ingredients first.

We need to finely chop about 3 carrots, or 1/2 cup.

Then a 1/2 cup of finely chopped celery...

And 1 medium red onion chopped into 1/4 inch pieces.

Go ahead and place all of this in a bowl together... and admire the pretty colors for a few minutes.

Then set it aside.

Seriously, that is pretty colors!

Okay anyway, now go ahead and chop up your bacon. Chances are you are going to get a pound of bacon and each strip will be 1 ounce.

You can measure this if you'd like to make sure, but really 4 strips of bacon will be more than enough.

Go ahead and set your bacon aside as well. You're going to want to get out a bowl now, because it's time to grate your cheese!

If you get a normal 8 ounce block of extra sharp white cheddar, then you're going to be grating 1 and 1/2 blocks, or 12 ounces.

Go ahead and set your bowl of cheese in the fridge. You actually aren't going to be needing it for a little while.

Now, get out your big stock pot. I like mine, it's stainless steel.

Now throw in your bacon. You're going to cook this until it's wilted, not crisp.

It will look a little like this:

Then go ahead and throw your veggie mix on top. Let it cook stirring occasionally. Here is where you're going to let that bacon crisp and those veggies to cook down.

It is going to look something like this...

Delicious! Now go ahead and sprinkle in your 3 Tablespoons of flour...

And stir to coat everything. Now you are going to want to stir this consistently over medium heat for 2 minutes.

If you stop stirring the flour will burn and that would be a bad thing!

Now once those 2 minutes are up, pour in about half of your chicken stock. But keep stirring!

Now pour in about half of your whole milk, and keep stirring!

Now add the other half of the chicken stock, stir and the other half of the milk, stir. Make sure there are no lumps in your soup, and stir until everything is combined.

It will look similar to this...

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer on medium low for 15 minutes.

It's gonna start smelling good though. I'm warning you!

Now once that 15 minutes is up, immediately remove this from the heat.

Now comes the good part! Go ahead and add in your 1/2 cup room temp beer (Drink the rest if you must but I like my beer cold!)...

1/2 teaspoon of Worcestershire...

3 good dashes of Tabasco...

And your cheese!

Salt and pepper to taste...

And mix it all together until silky smooth.

And that's about it! Soups on!

Now me personally... I like to add pretzels on the side for the bread as a further tribute to Le Cellier's pretzel breadsticks they serve at the beginning of your meal.

Oh yes. Soup's on!

Le Cellier Cheddar Cheese Soup

Courtesy of Epcot

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. smoked bacon finely chopped

1 medium red onion cut into 1/4 in. pieces

1/2 cup finely sliced celery

1/2 cup finely chopped carrots

3 TB all-purpose flour

3 cups whole milk

2 cups chicken stock

12 oz. grated white cheddar, Canadian Black Diamond

3 dashes Tabasco

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup Moosehead Canadian Ale, room temperature

salt and pepper to taste

1 TB thinly sliced chives

Cook the bacon in a large heavy-bottomed, non-reactive soup pot over medium heat until wilted but not browned. Add onions, celery and carrots and cook until the onion is translucent and bacon has crisped.

Sprinkle in flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Stir in milk and stock, a little at a time, blending well to ensure there are no lumps. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in cheese, Tabasco, Worcestershire and ale. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with your favorite bread and top with chopped chives.