Get my recipe for this delicious pepper jack soup. It’s rich and creamy but also has the lighter flavors of red bell pepper and tomato to brighten it up.
Pepper Jack Soup is exactly what you think it is. Are you excited? It’s soup made using pepper jack cheese! Yes!
How To Make Pepper Jack Cheese Soup
Much like the delicious Beer Cheese Soup and Beer Cheese Dip on this site, the pepper jack soup uses a roux of flour and butter to thicken it. It’s very easy to do. Don’t worry, I’ve got you. It’s a simple process of melting butter, whisking in flour, and then slowly adding milk as you keep whisking so as to avoid any flour lumps forming. Fyi, I really love using a flat whisk like this when making a roux. I find that it gets into the corners of the pot better than a traditional whisk, resulting in less risk of overbrowning or burning.
In addition to the thick creaminess from the roux, milk, and (of course!) the cheese, there are also some lighter flavors in here to balance things out: red bell pepper and diced tomatoes. And there’s a good bit of garlic too. The flavors are really great with the slightly spicy cheese.
This is a great soup to make for an easy dinner. It’s perfect for thermoses in lunchboxes too. Send some crunchy raw veggies and pita wedges along with it for dipping, like a cheese soup fondue.
More Cheesy Soup Recipes
You can browse my entire collection of soup recipes, or get started with more soups that include cheese.
Pepper Jack Cheese Soup Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Get my recipe for this delicious pepper jack soup. It’s rich and creamy but also has the lighter flavors of red bell pepper and tomato to brighten it up.
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1/2 of a red bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained
- 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
- 2 cups whole milk, divided
- 2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese (about 6 oz.)
Instructions
- In a medium frying pan melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until softened. Add the garlic and cook and stir for 30 seconds.
- Add the chicken broth and drained diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a large saucepan over medium heat melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Whisk in the flour, salt and black pepper until smooth. Cook for a minute while whisking. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of whole milk. Cook while stirring until it comes to a boil. While continuing to stir so that you don’t scorch the bottom of the pot, allow it to boil for one minute.
- Stir the simmered broth and veggies into the thickened milk. Add the pepper jack and the remaining milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until the cheese is melted. Do not let it boil.
- Taste and add a bit more salt and pepper if desired.
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This post originally appeared in February, 2011 and was revised and republished in September, 2017.
omg! This is soooo good! My new favorite soup!
Perfect for this time of year ! Thank you !
I must try this by the end of the week. There are a couple of chilly rainy days in the forecast. This soup plus a loaf of homemade french bread and a glass of wine sound like just the ticket!
This soup on a chilly rainy day sounds perfect. Y’know, one of the oddly weird things about living in Florida is that the weather is almost always nice. This should be a good thing but instead, I miss all those cozy cold days that cause your soul to crave soup. Enjoy it for me!
These flavors would be really nice with artichokes! –The ingredients all work together when artichokes are combined in a dip, so why not deconstructed, where the artichokes are the dippers?
I tried it yesterday and it did work out really well (meaning I couldn’t stop eating it). I made the dip thicker by reducing the amount of liquid and increasing the cheese a bit. I think I’m going to submit it to Food 52 today. Feeling ridiculously nervous though!
I am definitely going to have to try this soon! yum!
If you do, let me know how it turns out.
Sounds mmmmmmmm good:-) Your posts make me hungry!
Yes, I think you should enter all the contests. The recipes are delicious and the soup looks amazing.
I think I’m going to. Have to pick up an artichoke or two today and see how it goes.
This looks fantastic! It’s definitely going on my ‘Soup Mondays’ menu. ;)
Great idea to have soup on Mondays. Such a cozy way to start off the week.
We just finished gobbling this up, and it was deeeeelicious! Seriously, I licked my bowl clean. :) Thanks so much for the recipe! We’ll definitely be having this on other Monday Soup Nights. Yum.
I am sooo sooooo happy that you liked it! Yay!
And now for another addition to Monday Soup Nights: Try today’s baked baked potato soup but for your vegetarian family, scrap the bacon and bacon fat. Use 2 tbsp butter and saute a bunch of onions in the butter before adding the flour. Then use veggie broth instead of chicken broth and add 1 tsp of cumin and/or smoked paprika instead of the sage. I’ve even thought of adding a can of white kidney beans, pureed or not, to add some protein.
You are seriously the best! :) I was already reading that recipe and veg’nizing it! It looks great. I’ll let you know when we try it.
By the way, sorry I didn’t get back to your email yet. Last week was the Week of Death (perhaps that should read Weak!). We didn’t end up trying the appetizer on date night because date night didn’t happen. Next Saturday, for sure!
So sorry you had such a weak week. Glad you’re better and hope you do manage to get in a date night soon!
Ooohhhh… a question though. Why not sage? Just wondering if there’s a reason you think we should omit it because we do love sage. My mushroom gravy includes a bunch of sage.
You could put the sage too. In my head I’m not loving the sage, cumin and smoked paprika combo. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be good. It just means that I wouldn’t make a strong recommendation for it without testing it myself first to figure out how much of each and whether it would work at all. If you’ve done that combo of spices before, then go for it. If you’re willing to experiment, go for it. You could even just try mixing the three together and tasting them raw to see how they work. If you don’t then love the mixture of flavors, I would try oregano instead of the sage (oregano, cumin and paprika love love love each other). Btw, love the sound of your mushroom gravy!
I forgot to say that the reason I suggested cumin and smoked paprika was to give the soup smokiness without bacon. You could leave out these spices (and that smoked flavor) and do sage and thyme or oregano or basil and marjoram or chili powder and a tiny bit of cayenne or curry powder/paste, cumin and coriander. Any combination of spices you like will probably work. Note that you will probably need a bit more salt also because of the lack of bacon. Taste and see.
Sounds good! Now I understand why you suggested no sage. I’ll play around with it and see what I decide on. I’ll let you know (not this coming Monday, but the next one!).
The mushroom gravy has seasonings of sage, marjoram and thyme.. and is so good! :) I am a huge mushroom fan, though.