Food pairing question!

[BoxMan]

So, I've made a pale ale cheddar soup, using this recipe a few times, and adjusted it to near perfection.

Needless to say, it's DELICIOUS, but I'be been struggling with finding a good food to pair it with. I'm having company over on Sunday, and I want to make it for them - And I'm trying to think of a good meat / food to go well with the soup, and / or a beer to drink with it.

My first instinct would be to serve up some Sierra Nevada with it, and it's pretty good. However, I'm not sure what meat or dish I would pair well with both the cheddar soup and the beer for drink.

So, I come asking for advice. What other beer / food combination might go with the soup?

I was thinking about having a "beer themed" meal with the soup, a loaf of beer bread, and some Guinness brownies. If I do that, I'm open to any type of "main dish", as long as it's beer themed. Or should I just serve the soup up as the main attraction?

Yeah, sorry for the disorganized post. I'll leave it up to the pros to decipher it all!

 

[Jacob_Marley]

There used to be a cheddar cheese soup served in Detroit at the Hudson’s department store. The “secret ingredient in it was Angostura Bitters. I made it a few times and it was great with the extra bitters.
So, for the beer I’d say a bitter'ish beer ... maybe more of the pale ale - IPA ... or even better, ESB. Other hoppy beer?

For the other food ...
- Home made bread ... served hot ... maybe home made sourdough rye bread ... or if it’s store bought, maybe a classic heavy German rye
-Baked Ham
-sausages
-a small plate of some additional cheese ... maybe stilton ... or some softer cheese such as brie or camembert
-Some good brine pickles( the ones that are salt-brined ...Topors is a good one if they are available to you )
-Pickled onions ... maybe other pickled veg.
-Pickled eggs - and to sprinkle on top, salt, and pepper from a grinder
-real Butter ... a couple types of mustard.
-Bitter salad ... romaine and some amount of endive, escarole, chicorie, or radicchio ... balsamic dressing.
or ... one of those spinach salads with the hot bacon dressing that wilts the leaves.
-plate of fruit, a variety of apples (sliced and acidified by being dunked in mild lemon-water to keep them from browning), pears, some pomegranate sections, maybe figs or a few small tangerines or (my favorite) kumquats. Preserved fruit would be good too: cranberries, chutney, crabapple rings ... (ok, maybe I'm gettin out there)

If you need other hot food with it ... swiss chard with butter... acorn squash with butter and brown sugar ...roasted seasoned potatoes with oven roasted garlic cloves (the one where you use olive oil and slow roast the whole head of garlic first, then mix the cloves with the roast potato pieces) ...

Afterwards, maybe dried fruit and some of those leftover Holiday in-the-shell mixed nuts with ... more beer. ("a whisky for pudding" as they say on Monty Python)