Duchess Cheese Soup

People usually make jokes about Hospital food, but I had totally opposite experience. In 1993, I was doing my 8 wks clinical at Edwin Shaw Hospital in Ohio. Being a vegetarian, I could not eat most of the stuff in their cafeteria except they had this delicious cheese soup that I used to love.
During my last week of clinical there, I finally asked the chef, if she could give me the recipe. She was very generous and shared this with me. Unfortunately I don’t remember her name but believe you me, this soup is out of this world and the touch of Tapioca in the soup is something to die for…yummm.........

Ingredients

* 2 carrots shredded
* 1 medium onions finely diced
* Mushroom 6 ozs finely diced (optional)
* 1 tablespoon margarine/butter ( for saute) javascript:void(0)
* 2 cups milk
* 2 tablespoons margarine butter ( for roux)
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 1/2 lb cheddar cheese, shredded
* Veg Bouillon cubes 1 oz (optional)
* Salt to taste
* Ground mustard ¼ tsp
* Tabasco sauce ¼ tsp
* Ground white pepper ¼ tsp
* Tapioca partially cooked 1/4-1/2 cup (optional if you don't like tapioca)

Method:

1. Saute veggie and onions in the 1 tablespoon of butter.
2. In large soup pan, heat milk to a weak boil.
3. Melt 2 tablespoons butter, add 2 tablespoons flour to make roux, gradually add milk to roux using a wire whisk.
4. Add Bouillon cubes, salt, pepper, white pepper, dry mustard, tobacco sauce .
5. Cook until thickened stirring with whisk.
6. Add sauteed veggies and cheese, cook and blend with hand blender until melted, add tapioca.
7. Simmer 20 minutes until tapioca is well cooked and transparent looking.
8. Garnish with paprika
9. Great served with French or Sourdough bread !!

Serves 8
Recipe Source: Unknown Chef from Edwin Shaw Hospital cafeteria (1993)
Photo source: by PaulEisenberg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56833981@N00/2247029145/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en