Chili Cheese Soups

I went to Panera Bread for lunch yesterday. They have replaced the roasted tomato bisque with a vegetarian fiesta con queso soup that’s great. The main ingredients of this soup are: diced onion, corn, roasted red pepper, roasted Anaheim chili, celery, carrot, garlic, cheddar cheese and cream. I would have liked a spicier soup, but it was a wonderful lunch. I have two recipes for similar soups that I’ve tweaked to make them vegetarian. The second recipe is awfully rich, so I’ve offered some slim down suggestions.

The first recipe relies on canned chilies, but normally I would substitute a half a cup of chopped chilies of varying degrees of heat. Canned chilies are handy when your freezer has no more frozen roasted peppers. I think last summer’s crop was so good that I won’t have to buy any chilies before the new crop comes in. Not every year is that good.

Chili Cheese Soup

3 1/2 cups water
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots chopped fine
3 ribs celery, chopped
½ cups corn kernels
1 can diced tomatoes (if you really want heat substitute a can of Rotele)
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
1/4 teaspoon pepper
½ cup heavy cream
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Mexican blend cheese

In soup kettle sauté onion, garlic, carrots, corn and celery in the olive oil until tender. Add water, tomato, chilies, and pepper in large saucepan; bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in tomato soup Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thoroughly heated. Stir in heavy cream and cheese and heat gently until cheese melts. I like to use tomato soup as a base for a lot of soups because it’s smooth and adds a lot of flavor and color. Heavy cream doesn’t curdle as fast as milk will, but you should always heat it gently. It doesn’t take a lot of it to make a soup really creamy.

How rich do you want your soup to be? Here’s a wonderful tasting soup that’s originally called for 3 cups of milk and 2 cups of cream. That’s a lot of calories! I slimmed this recipe down by substituting vegetable broth for all of the milk and one cup of the cream. It’s still pretty rich. A Poblano is a fairly mild chili. You can add heat by using hot sauce and by substituting a hotter pepper.

Poblano Soup Recipe

4 tablespoons butter (you could substitute olive oil)
2 ounces all-purpose flour
1 cup whipping cream
4 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup finely diced purple onion
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
2/3 cup finely diced carrots
3/4 cup finely chopped poblano peppers
½ cup roasted corn kernels cut off of the cob
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper, cayenne
Pinch ground white pepper
3/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
Hot sauce to taste (I like Tabasco’s chipotle sauce)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Mexican blend of cheeses


In 4-qt stock pot or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour and simmer, whisking constantly, until smooth and bubbly. Whisk in vegetable broth and cook, stirring frequently or whisking, over medium-low heat until smooth and thickened.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and carrots; cook until tender, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add poblano peppers and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in the corn.
Add vegetable mixture to thickened broth mixture; stir to combine. Stir in salt and ground black, white, and red peppers; simmer over medium-low heat a few minutes. Add red bell pepper. Simmer mixture 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Add cheese and cream and stir until melted. Add hot sauce as desired. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.
Serves 6.

Spring is coming soon. My daffodils are up and ready to bloom. My seed orders have arrived, and I have 24 lettuce plants sprouted and growing in my little tabletop greenhouse.