Recipe Background
Warm & Cozy Soup marries crisp bacon with silky cheese for a comforting autumn dish.
There's something magical about the first evening after the first frost—the air crisp and promising, a world inviting you to linger indoors, maybe for the first fireside gathering of the season. It was on such a night that this warm and cozy soup was born, an experiment that quickly became a staple in our house. Just after my youngest went off to college, the bustling noise of a full nest was replaced with echoing quiet. I found solace in the kitchen, drawing inspiration from simpler times. Bacon is, after all, a universally accepted comfort food, and celery, onion, and green peppers bring a subtle depth. The satisfying sizzle of bacon in a Dutch oven became a meditative prelude to the comforting evening ritual.
An ample splash of milk was the creamy answer I sought to balance the sharpness of cubed processed cheese, making it silkier without tipping over the edge into overwhelming richness. Every spoonful was a whisper of childhood, a nod to the years passed while raising my sons with laughter and a good splash of sherry for spice. It was a lesson learned the hard way to let each bowlful rest just a few moments before serving, letting the flavors meld, allowing the aroma to waft over and ground me in the cozy kitchen I now called my smaller, quieter home. This soup, garnished with pimiento-stuffed olives and adorned with fresh parsley, became a gentle tribute to transition and transformation, warmed with memories of the past and flavored by the hope for new traditions.
A single serving of this luxurious concoction was said to be the fastest way to thaw a cold heart or reignite a tentative connection. The dish soon became our post-first-frost tradition, a delicious invitation to embrace every chilling season with warmth and nostalgia.
Ingredients
- 5 bacon strips diced
- 1/2 cup celery chopped
- 1/2 cup onion chopped
- 1/2 cup green pepper chopped
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
- 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups whole milk
- 3 cups processed cheese cubed
- 1/2 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed olives
- 1/2 cup carrots grated
- 2 tablespoons sherry optional
- fresh parsley minced
Directions
- In a Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
- In the bacon drippings, sauté the celery, the onion, and the green pepper until tender.
- Stir the flour and the ground pepper into the veggie mixture until blended.
- Gradually add the broth and the milk to the veggie mixture.
- Bring the veggie mixture to a boil.
- Cook the veggie mixture, while stirring, until thickened, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the cheese, the olives, the carrots, and the sherry to the veggie mixture and cook until the cheese is melted.
- Serve with a sprinkle of the cooked bacon and the parsley.
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