Vegetarian Corn Chowder
by Sep 30th, 2010 // Appetizers, Recipes, Veggie Friendly
Vegetarian Corn Chowder
When one of our readers, Shannon, suggested we make a corn chowder I immediately began searching for recipes. I just knew my husband and kid would both love it. Turns out most chowder recipes call for heavy cream. (Duh!) I’m a fan of heavy cream when it’s whipped. I also love it frozen – hello? who doesn’t like ice cream? But I really hate to use it in soup. It just seems so unnecessary and fattening and filling and unhealthy. After loads of searching I found one recipe that seem like it could be good even though it did not call for heavy cream.
We wound up using Mark Bittman’s Basic Corn Chowder recipe as the base of our own corn chowder creation. We made quite a few revisions which, in my humble opinion, improved the final outcome.
My kid loved the idea that the corn cobs were a part of the recipe. He helped put them in the water while wearing his new Halloween costume. You can see the cuff of it in the picture. He’s going to be a “spaceman” aka an astronaut.
The soup was a huge hit especially with my kid. We the leftovers tonight for dinner and he ate every last bite of it. Now for the recipe…
Corn Chowder Recipe
adapted from Mark Bittman’s Basic Corn Chowder
Prep Time: 10 mins Cooking Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
6 ears of corn
6 or 7 cups water
4 teaspoons good vegetable bullion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, chopped finely
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup low-fat milk
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
green onion for garnish
Shuck corn and use a knife to cut kernels off. Set aside. Fill a medium sized pot with 6 cups of water and place the cobs in the water. If the cobs aren’t covered, add one more cup of water to cover. Bring to a boil and add bullion. Turn down heat, cover and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes.
Pour oil in a large pot and turn heat to medium-high. When oil is hot, add onion and potatoes, along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion softens, about 5 minutes.
After corncobs have cooked, strain liquid into onion-potato mixture; bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. When potatoes are tender, add corn kernels and milk, and heat through. Remove 4 cups of soup from pot and transfer (2 cups at a time) to a blender. Be sure to only fill your blender 1/2 way so steam can escape. When you are ready to blend, remove the plastic insert from your blender lid and place the lid on top of the blender with a dishcloth over the top. Blend the soup into a puree and dump it back into the pot. Do a second batch of soup the same way and also return it to the pot. Add paprika and stir. Cover and let simmer on low for another 20 minutes until flavors have combined. Add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with green onion.
Note: Blending only 4 cups of the soup makes for a thick creamy broth but still leaves delicious chunks of corn and potatoes. Makes 6 hearty servings.
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Looks yummy! We used a Tyler Florence recipe for this last week which is what gave me the idea to recommend it. We replaced the heavy cream with milk for the same reason – I just don't like it in soup nor do I like the added fat & calories. I like the addition of paprika in your recipe.
Love the costume. We've already got ours too. My daughter chose to be a vampire (boy's version) and my son is dressing up like a mushroom from the Super Mario games.
Looks yummy! And very appropriate since today is World Vegetarian Day!
that is so cool!
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[…] with the vegetarian corn chowder. This recipe calls for removing the kernels from the corn cob and cooking just the cob in water. […]