Asiago Bisque- More Than Just Cheese Soup

I needed something for lunch today so when I got up at 0400, I decided that a quick cheese soup was on the agenda.

Except this couldn't be just ANY soup. Nope. Nosirree. I had to make it AB Normal, like me.
Don't get me wrong, regular cheese soup with or without broccoli is fabulous. But I wanted something with a little HA!, and a HIYA! and a kicker! (my kicker is when I ended up walking out the door and forgot to TAKE my newly created soup for lunch! Doh!)

I had read somewhere that asiago soup was fabulous. So I set out this morning to make my own. See the clock on the stove? Yeah, that really does say 4:44. It doesn't say it was A.M., but it was. Call me crazy (again, some more). I am. I'm a morning person. I had been up for almost an hour, and out of bed for almost 45 minutes by the time I got all the ingredients together for the before picture.

Funny though, I seemed to have buried the celery....it's that little spot of green under all the taters and carrots. Oh, and that bottle of wine back there? Yeah, just skip that. I ended up not using it.

Here's what ya do:

You get about 4 stalks of celery and half a bag of baby carrots (or about 4 regular carrots)...I put mine in the shredder part of my food processor, but you can dice 'em up if ya want. Then stick 'em in a pot with a half a stick of melted butter.

Then you want to take some onions. I only had small onions, so I used about 4...maybe it was 5....I can't remember. Did I mention it was early early? I did? Ok. Good. 'Cause it was.

Anyway- dice up those onions, or run those through your food processor, too, then toss them on top of the celery and carrots and stir away.

Grab yourself some potatoes. I used about 4 really large taters and diced them up. They weren't cooked yet, so I didn't want to put them in the food processor...just a good ol' hand and knife dice. 

Toss those taters in the pot:

Then you're going to want to add about 3 cups of chicken broth and stir to combine everything. Bring it to a boil and let simmer until potatoes are fork tender...about 20 minutes depending on how big or small your potatoes were diced.

Then you add about 2 cups of half and half. 

I guess you can use milk, but I think you'd have to call it  something else, I'm not sure. Because the cream in the half and half is what makes this a bisque. I think there's rules about that somewhere. You'd have to ask Rachel Ray or that french chef guy because I don't know.

Once your potatoes are tender, and you've added the half and half, blend your soup to a creamy consistency.  I love my stick blender. You should consider getting one if you don't already have one., These things are fabulous! 

Once blended, it will probably be of a medium thickness. That's ok. Go ahead and add your asiago cheese and mix well. I used shredded because it was early and I wasn't fully functional yet. Did I mention it was *early* morning?

Now, you're probably wondering why there are no spices in this soup. Right? Well, it's like this...it was early, and cheese has salt already, and asiago is a bitey cheese, and I didn't think it really needed any more spice. Well, except maybe some hot sauce later. But that's a personal preference.

Once it was all blended and the cheese was added and melted into the mix, it was just a tad too thick and lumpy. So I added another cup of chicken broth (we're up to 4 cups total now) and blended some more.

The texture came out creamy and the taste is rich and complex, with a tad bit too much onion flavor. I mean, I guess if you like onions, it would be perfect. But for me, I probably could have got away with one less onion.

No matter, the soup was wonderful. Top it with some shredded cheddar and bacon bits and maybe some toasted baguette pieces and enjoy!

ASIAGO BISQUE SOUP

3 cups chicken broth (plus possibly one cup more)

2 cups half and half

4 carrots (or half a bag baby carrots), diced or shredded

4 celery stalks, diced or shredded

1/2 a stick of butter

4 small onions, or two large, diced

4 large potatoes, diced

10 ozs shredded Asiago cheese

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add carrots, celery and onion. Saute about 5 minutes 

Add chicken broth and potatoes. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. 

Add half and half and stir. 

Using a stick blender (or regular blender, but be careful!) blend until smooth.

Turn off heat and add Asiago cheese, stir well to combine.
*Optional Add up to one more cup of chicken broth until your soup is your desired consistency.

Serve hot with shredded cheddar and bacon bits and baguette.