Corn Chowder

I'm a day late for the No Croutons Required event but hopefully the lovely Holler & Lisa will still accept my entry! This month it's spicy soups, and I have to admit that I don't love eating a lot of spicy food. I'd rather be able to taste my food with only a bit of spiciness, and not have my nose start running! (Though occasionally I do love eating sushi with tons of wasabi, but that's a different kind of spicy.) The soup I made was corn chowder, and the original recipe calls for 2 jalapeño peppers but I am wimpy so I only put in one.

When I was growing up, I loved that my birthday was in August because it meant I got to eat corn on the cob for my birthday. Now I often forget about corn, so it was great to come across a recipe for corn chowder. I'm really on a soup kick right now, which has not yet been evidenced in my blog but trust me when I say there are many soups to come! I'm loving soups because they're something that are relatively easy to make, you always get leftovers, and they can often be quite healthy.

I loved how thick and filling the soup was. I'd like to try and create my perfect corn chowder so to make this soup again, I'd try swapping out the potatoes for sweet potatoes, use less rosemary (as I'm not a big fan), use more onion, and maybe try adding another herb. I just realized that I photographed this soup in the exact same way, in the exact same bowl as I did for the last No Croutons Required Soup! How unimaginative. Or maybe it should be a tradition or maybe I need to get more soup bowls!

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
Santa Fe Pasta Salad
Parmesan Corn Risotto Cakes

Corn Chowder
adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

Serves 4 as a meal.

1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium-size onion, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1 large red bell pepper, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice (approximately 3 carrots)
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
A few dashes black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups vegetable broth
3 cups frozen corn kernels
2 medium-size russet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch chunks
1 bay leaf
Pinch cayenne
1/4 cup plain soy milk
2 tsp maple syrup

In stockpot sauté the onions, bell peppers, carrots and jalapeño in the olive oil over medium heat until the onions are translucent, about 7 minutes. Add rosemary, thyme, black pepper, and salt; sauté 1 minute more. Add the broth, corn, potatoes, bay leaf and cayenne. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the tomatoes are tender. Uncover and simmer 120 minutes more to let the liquid reduce a bit.

Remove the bay leaf and puree half the chowder either using a hand held blender or by transferring half the chowder to a blender, pureeing till smooth, and adding back to soup. Add the soy milk and maple syrup, and simmer 5 more minutes. Let sit for at least 10 minutes and serve.