Creamy Corn Chowder

I’m feeding my soup addiction again!

I can’t help it — I’m not much of a cook, but I can saute and boil food well enough, and since making soup only requires these two cooking techniques I’ve got soup-making down solid.

Chowder is actually one of the types of soup I didn’t cover back in November and I totally should have — it’s major comfort food.

For those of you who don’t know, a chowder is a thick soup with onions and potatoes in a creamy milk or tomato base. Usually chowders include bacon, too, but I don’t eat pork, so… yeah. Mmm, potatoes!

Actually, I’ll probably be making a lot of potato-inclusive-type foods over the next couple months.

See, I won a bottle of vodka hidden in a big, heavy box full of potatoes in my family’s “Secret Santa” game a couple weeks ago, and I’m determined to not let the potatoes go to waste!

Also, on another note, I kind of dropped the ball on taking photos for this post. I was making other food at the same time, had company over, end of a long day, etc. It happens.

But at least I got some glamour shots of the chowder!

Creamy Corn Chowder

*adapted from all-recipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• 6 small baking potatoes, cubed
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 cans cream corn, 398 ml (14 oz)
• 1 can whole kernel corn, 341 ml (12 oz)
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, diced + more, for garnish
• 2 cups half & half cream
• cornstarch, to thicken
• pinch of smokey paprika
• salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

In a large pot over medium heat, saute the diced onion in olive oil until it just starts to go brown.

Add the cubed potatoes, 4 cups of vegetable stock, 2 cans of cream corn, and 1 can of whole kernel corn to the pot. Turn the heat down to medium-low, do not cover the soup, and gently simmer everything until the potatoes are tender enough to break apart with a fork — this should take approximately 30 minutes or so.

Once the potatoes are tender, add the diced red bell pepper and chopped fresh parsley to the soup. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

To finish the chowder, simply add 2 cups of half & half cream to the pot, bring the soup back up to a simmer, and allow to thicken.

If you’d like an even thicker chowder (like I did), then you can add a tablespoon or two of cornstarch mixed with cold water to the mix. There is no “rule” when it comes to this sort of thing, though — some people prefer thin chowder, and some people like it chunky enough to eat with a fork!

Season with a pinch of smokey paprika, and, of course, salt and pepper.

Garnish your chowder with a pinch of red bell pepper bits and a sprinkling of paprika, then serve it up hot with a side of spicy sweet potato cornbread or beer bread! Yum!