Brown Beer Onion Soup

Ingredients:

2 bottles (12 oz) of brown ale 3 large onions, thinly sliced into strips 3-4 cloves of mashed roasted garlic 6 cups beef stock 1/4 cup olive oil (I prefer extra-virgin, first cold-pressed for the most flavour) Salt (sea salt for more flavour) and pepper 2 bay leaves 1/2 tsp dried thyme 1 tsp Worchester sauce Crumbled whole milk blue cheese Rustic sour dough bread

Direction & Notes:

Get a large soup pot, stove it at medium-high, then drop in the olive oil. Stir in the onions so they are covered with oil, season with salt and pepper and cover the pot, stirring occasionally until the onions begin to caramelize to a light brown. Add in the remaining ingredients, then bring the mix to a boil, then simmer. Cook for ~30 minutes or so, ensuring that the onions are good and soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste, drop some blue cheese on top (it will melt). Toast the sour dough bread, butter and serve on the side for dipping! *from BeerAdvocate.com

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Vegetable Broth
• 3 carrots diced
• 1 cup green split peas
• 2 onions diced
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 teaspoon minced rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

In a large saucepan, combine the broth, carrots, peas, onions, minced garlic, rosemary and salt; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, stirring as needed, until the peas have disintegrated, around 1 hour.

Serve with garlic croutons (home made or store bought) and freshly chopped flat leaf parsley.