Thank you DuClaw Brewing for sponsoring this post and sending me the DuClaw Sweet Baby Java. All opinions and the soup recipe are my own.
Welcome to the March edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Each month DuClaw Brewing sends me a beer and a friend and I create a recipe. It’s a fun time to think outside the box and try a new beer and new food. This month’s beer is “Sweet Baby Java”, an espresso bean infused version of Sweet Baby Jesus.
Each month when I get my beer from DuClaw, my friend and I brainstorm ideas for the recipe. I knew which beer was coming this time and we were heading in the direction of a dessert of some sort. But then we got the beer. Now, I love Sweet Baby Jesus. It’s one of my favorite of their beers and was the first beer of DuClaw’s that I cooked with. I made a wicked good cupcake. I expected Sweet Baby Java to basically be a coffee version of Sweet Baby Jesus. That is to say, a sweet chocolatey peanut beer with the added flavor of coffee. But the espresso really changes the beer – it’s no longer sweet and the chocolate is less present. It’s really quite good, but very different than we expected. Somehow, this led us in the direction of soup!
I confess that I was worried I’d be eating a bowl of peanut butter. I was even more worried when my friend suggested tomatoes in the garnish. But, oddly, it all really works together and I was quite happy to come home to a bowl of it after a long day and run club last night. This may be one of our best recipes yet.
DuClaw Sweet Baby Java Virginia Peanut Soup
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Disclaimer: DuClaw Brewing sent me beer to cook with and compensated me for this post. Recipe, photos, and opinions are my own.