Polish Sausage Soup

This soup is an old favorite. It’s certainly not the healthiest soup in the world, but as long as you can handle dairy, it sure is tasty! It has a beer and cheddar cheese soup base, livened up with some spices and kielbasa sausage. Great for cold days, but it cooks fast enough to be good on hot ones too because you aren’t heating up the kitchen for very long. In fact, the speed with which I can throw this soup together is one of my favorite things about it!

Someday, I will find a homemade Cheddar Cheese Soup recipe that I will love, and that will do away with all of the extra ingredients in Campbell’s. For now, however, I am using Campbell’s because that’s part of what makes this recipe fast! (A quick Google search found this recipe for a homemade soup base. I can’t vouch for it, though. If trying this recipe, I’d mix some of the flour into the cheese before adding it to the liquid so it doesn’t clump–a trick I learned from fondue.)

Polish Sausage Soup
Contains soy, wheat, and quite a bit of dairy

Ingredients
(In the pictures, I’m making 1 1/2 batches)

1/2 to 1 kielbasa
2 cans condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
2 tsp stone-ground mustard (like Grey Poupon)
1 can or bottle of beer of your choice (stay away from light beers, and only use a stout if that’s a flavor the whole family enjoys)
1 soup can milk
1/2 soup can water
1/4 tsp pepper (I just make several grinds from my pepper mill anymore)
Shredded cheddar cheese – to garnish

Directions

Chop the kielbasa into thin slices and then brown them in a frying pan. Transfer to a plate with a paper towel on it and blot with another paper towel to remove more of the grease.

Browning the kielbasa is technically optional as they’re usually precooked, but I do it for two reasons: 1) I think it tastes better browned, and 2) it removes some of the extra fat.

While the kilebasa cooks, whisk together cheddar cheese soup and mustard in a large soup pot.

Whisk in beer, milk, water, and pepper.

Bring to a careful boil, making sure to stir frequently. As the alcohol boils out of the beer, it threatens to boil over, so keep a watchful eye as it increases in volume and be ready to stir rapidly and turn the heat down as soon as it starts to reach the boiling point.