Creamy Cheese Soup
Processed cheese has one habit: in a boiling soup it gathers into stringy threads instead of dissolving. Cold and a grater are the cure — half an hour in the freezer and the cheese shreds on a coarse grater and melts evenly into hot stock. After that, the soup never boils again.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Rest
- 10 min
- Total
- 50 min
- Servings
- 6
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 290 kcal
Ingredients
The soup
Croutons
Makes: about 2 l, 6 bowls
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Part-freeze the cheese
Put the blocks in the freezer for 30 minutes. Cold cheese grates; soft cheese only smears across the grater.
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Step 2: Cook the potatoes
Bring the stock to the boil, add the potatoes and simmer 12–15 minutes until tender.
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Step 3: Soften the vegetables
Meanwhile cook the onion and carrot in butter for 6–7 minutes until soft and add them to the pot.
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Step 4: Stop the boil
Turn the heat down until the soup stops bubbling. This is the moment that matters: cheese must never go into a boiling pot.
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Step 5: Stir in the cheese
Grate the part-frozen cheese coarsely and add it by the handful, stirring each one until fully dissolved. Rushing gives exactly the lumps you are avoiding.
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Step 6: Fry the croutons
Fry the bread cubes in oil with garlic for 4–5 minutes until crisp. Add them to the bowl, not the pot — in the soup they go soft within a minute.
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Step 7: Let it settle
Season, cover and leave for 10 minutes. The soup thickens and the cheese flavour spreads evenly.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Buy cheese in blocks with a short ingredients list rather than a tub of spread: spreads often contain starch and leave a floury taste in soup.
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Tip
If the cheese does clump, blitz the soup with a stick blender. It becomes a cream soup, but it is entirely saved.
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Variation
With smoked chicken: add 200 g of sliced breast with the softened vegetables. With mushrooms: 250 g of button mushrooms fried separately until golden.
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Storage
Two days in the fridge. Reheat gently without boiling or the cheese separates. Keep the croutons apart.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 6 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 290 kcal | 1,740 kcal |
| Protein | 11 g | 66 g |
| Fat | 17 g | 102 g |
| Carbohydrates | 23 g | 138 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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