Jalapeno Cheese Soup

OK. So this has been a  seriously crazy time. Working retail at Xmas time is a total and I do mean *total* time and energy sucking time of year. Add to the mix, a serious tooth  problem, and you end up with like no time, energy or ability to do anything you really want to do…which for me is this.

I have *so* much I want to do with Culinary Zest, so many ideas and things I want to share, even if I am the only one reading any of it. I really hate putting my creative space on pause, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow and roll with the punches. *sighs*

I’ve had an exhausting Saturday at work, not enough staff and way to much work. I’m tired. I’m sore. I just want to flake out.

This Jalapeno Cheese Soup has been sitting in my  folder for a while  now, waiting for the time I could just sit back and put some time in here.  If I wait for the perfect time it will sit there some more.

I whipped up a version of this recipe years ago and haven’t made it since. I just remember how much I liked it, but it was full of cream and loads of cheese and it wasn’t something you were going to eat on a regular basis 🙂 For me, it’s definitely a Fall and Winter kinda eats.

I was flipping through my original recipe, which I have written up in my leather recipe book, where I keep all my little notes and things when I experiment and then want to keep a record.  After making this version, it made me laugh, because my original recipe said to use 1 lb of jalapeno peppers. I must have used some seriously weak jalapeno that go around!

The reason it made me laugh is I roasted up 7  jalapeno peppers to use with this recipe and used only *3* and that was more than enough! I love hot spicy food, but these three little guys were surprisingly hot. Hot enough to give  a big ole kick to this whole pot of soup. That just goes to show you, test your peppers out for heat, they vary that much!

I roasted up some jalapeno, shallots and several garlic cloves with a little olive oil. Just playing around with building flavour.

I grabbed one of my favourite LeCrueset pots threw in a generous pat of butter and sautéed some chopped red and orange bell peppers and carrots.

After my peppers and carrots had softened a bit, I simply added my chicken stock, my roasted jalapeno, shallots and garlic and some chili powder, cumin and a couple of bay leaves and left it all to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

When sufficiently cooked, I used my hand blender to blend the mixture up directly in my cooking pot before adding some heavy cream, some chopped fresh cilantro, zest and juice of a small lime and then it was cheeeeeeeeesy time! I slowly added my cheese to my soup and whisked to help blend it in. I used extra old cheddar as well as some Monterey Jack cheese. Put in as much as you like, its cheese and it is good. You know it is. Go on. Do it!

I left my lovely Jalapeno Cheese Soup to simmer, covered, for roughly another 20 minutes. Which got me from this…

  to this…

A nice bowl of warm spicy Jalapeno Cheese Soup, garnished with a little fresh jalapeno, fresh cilantro and some diced up avocado for some extra fun 🙂 I have to admit, that despite being a chilehead…this soup packed a good punch in the heat department, more than I expected it would.

I packaged up my extras and put them in the freezer so I would have some easy and satisfying eats on cold Canadian winter days or nights or both 🙂