Spicy Cheeseburger Soup (Club).

Good Morning and Happy Thursday!  I have an exciting and delicious recipe to share with you today.  It is a favorite of my family, as well as my friends at school.  

But before I do, I have to show you the pretty snow that was in my front yard yesterday afternoon.  We finally had some of the "white stuff" here in the Lehigh Valley and I got a little excited.  

Ok, on to the soup...

Every Wednesday at work, we have “Soup Club” where people take turns bringing in crock-pots of soup to share.  Since we usually have about three to four people signed up during any given week, and this week it was my turn.  The rule is: if you participate, then you can have soup.  Easy enough, right? 

Here’s a look at some of the crock-pots full of the yummy soup concoctions: Spinach Tortellini soup, a Southwest Chicken Soup (from Real Simple's website), and a Spicy Rice soup.  I’d say it was a good day for the Soup Club members! 

Here I am with two members of my 4^th grade team and we cheated by tasting the soup before our scheduled lunch.  It’s just so hard to resist!!

Today’s recipe is Spicy Cheeseburger soup.  It is a creamy soup complete with ground beef, vegetables, and cheese with a little kick.  Several years ago, the recipe was given to me by a former colleague, so I decided to continue on with the tradition.  Most cheeseburgers don’t have the zip that this soup gets from the jalapeno pepper – and it’s a fine trade-off for a bun!

Here’s the recipe!

Spicy Cheeseburger Soup

2 cups potatoes, cubed

2 carrots, grated

1 small onion, diced

¼ cup green pepper, seeded and chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, deveined and chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules

½ teaspoon salt

1 pound ground beef, browned and drained

2 ½ cups milk, divided

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ pound (8 ounces) American cheese, cubed

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

 ½ pound (8 ounces) bacon, cooked and crumb  

In a large stockpot, combine 1 ½ cups water, potatoes, carrots, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, bouillon, garlic, and salt.   

I used a food processor to grate the carrots.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. 

 Stir in beef and 2 cups of the milk.  Heat through.

In a small bowl, combine flour and the remaining milk and stir until smooth.  Gradually stir into soup.  Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened and bubbling, about 2 minutes.

Reduce heat and stir in cheese until melted.  Sliced American cheese is fine, just cut the entire brick into cubes.  Add cayenne pepper if desired.  I didn’t add the cayenne because I thought the soup had enough “kick” for my family’s tastes. 

I cooked the bacon in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.  This is a great way to cook a lot of bacon all at once.

 

 YUM!

Top with bacon just before serving.  Tada...the final masterpiece!

 

This recipe serves six people.  To make enough for an entire crock-pot, I tripled the recipe so I had enough to take to school (and for dinner the night before).

Although this soup isn’t completely low-fat (I used skim milk to help reduce some of the calories).  It is ridiculously delicious and well-worth the splurge!

Enjoy!

Tracy