With a hint of Fall in the air and the football season just beginning (as well a October baseball that Alex is ridiculously excited about), I've been inspired lately to dig out some tried and true recipes that complement the season. (Well, our new appliances certainly make cooking a lot more fun these days as well.) Today I wanted to share a lightened up recipe with you for cheddar cheese soup -- a quick and easy crowd pleaser that makes a perfect game day treat.

Ingredients

• 4 tsp. olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 6 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 4 c. organic vegetable broth
• 3 c. skim milk
• 14 oz. low fat Cheddar cheese, shredded or cut into cubes
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tsp. paprika

Directions

Assembly of this recipe is extremely simple and takes only about 20 minutes. 

Start by heating oil in a soup pot over medium high heat.

Once the oil has heated but well before smoking, add the chopped onion and cook until soft, stirring often.

When the onion becomes translucent add the flour and stir to coat the onions.

Add the vegetable broth and bring it to boil, but be sure to continue stirring frequently.

(Look at that beautiful backsplash.)

Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and simmer until soup thickens, roughly 2 minutes.

Add the milk and return to a boil, stirring constantly. It's very important to keep stirring or the milk will burn on the bottom of the pot.

Using an immersion blender puree the mixture to turn it into soup. If you don't have an immersion blender on hand, a regular blender works too, you'll just need to blend the soup in smaller batches.

The final step to really make this soup a winner...cheese. Turn off heat to the pot and stir in the cubed cheese until it melts. It will take a few minutes but all of the cheese will slowly melt into the soup. 

When the cheese has fully melted season with salt and pepper.

This recipe makes approximately eight, 1 1/4 cup servings. To fancy it up a bit, garnish each serving with a dusting of paprika. (In this case, I was super excited to use some of the paprika we brought back to our trip to Hungary!)

Alex has commented that this soup tastes like your drinking macaroni and cheese, and major compliment in his eyes! If you're less concerned about your waistline and more interested in a decadent recipe, you can substitute 2% milk for skim, and regular cheddar cheese for the reduced fat. In our opinion though, this soup is so tasty, you won't realize you've made healthy substitutions. 

Do you have any game day favorites? Maybe food that's a standby when the leaves start to fall? If so, I'd love to hear all about it.