Cheeseburger in Paradise Soup

This is a new soup ... one that I found in a Taste of Home magazine that my son gave me at Christmastime. With time and finagling, I think it will be a worthy soup, but yesterday when I made it, I couldn't put my finger on what will make is a perfect cream soup. As you look at the list of ingredients, give it a think, will you?  Let me know if something glares out at you.

Cheeseburger Paradise Soup

Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

1 small carrot, peeled and grated

1 small onion, small dice

¼  c. green pepper, small dice

1 tbsp. jalapeno pepper, minced

1 ½ c. strong beef broth (Better Than Bouillion is my choice for fast broth)

2 cloves garlic, minced

⅛ tsp. black pepper

1 lb. ground beef

4 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 tbsp. butter

2 ½ c. 2% milk, divided

3 tbsp. flour

8 oz. Velveeta process cheese, cubed

Garnish:

4 slices crumbled cooked bacon

Making the Soup:

1. In a deep Dutch oven or soup pot, combine the potatoes, carrot, onion, green pepper, jalapeno pepper, garlic, black pepper and beef broth. Bring the pot to a boil, cover and lower the heat. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
2. In a large fry pan, melt the butter and crumble the ground beef. As the meat begins to brown, add the mushrooms and cook until beef is fully browned.
3. Add to the meat and mushrooms to the soup along with 1 ½ c. of the milk. Bring the heat up a bit under to soup to get it to begin to bubble.
4. Add the flour to the rest of the milk in the measuring cup and stir to make a smooth mixture. Slowly add it to the soup, stirring until the soup begins to thicken slightly.
5. Add the cubes of cheese to the soup and stir to melt them into the creamy broth.
6. Lower the heat again to the lowest setting while you cook the bacon. Pat the bacon slices to remove excess fat and crumble the bacon in a bowl. Set aside.
7. Serve the soup hot with bacon garnish.

Here are my initial ideas of what I'll do next time to get it closer to right -

1. I think I would make the beef into tiny meatballs. The loose burger bits in the broth weren't aethetically pleasing to me.

2. I know 2% milk is good for drinking, but when it comes to cream soups, I think one should just bite the bullet and accept that the fatty cream is there for a reason, so in with the heavy cream and out with the more watery milk.

3. Velveeta is a good product (ahem) and all, but I'm thinking that a soft orange Cheddar and Fontina mix would be all the better.