Connie’s Coronavirus Cooking Chronicles – Recipe 4 – Corn Chowder
Who doesn’t love a good corn chowder? I like that this healthy soup can be made thick and creamy without having to add any heavy cream, although you can add some heavy cream (or milk or cashew cream) at the end if you want.
This recipe is kind of inspired by the corn chowder from Panera although I wouldn’t call it a copycat recipe exactly. It’s perfect for any season – in the winter you can use frozen corn and in the summer you can use fresh corn! I usually make this soup without cheese but you can add some cheese at the end if you want a cheesy soup.
Corn Chowder
Ingredients
- 8 jalopenos, seeds removed, diced (~2.5 cups)
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 24 oz bag of mini golden potatoes, diced (or 24 oz of diced yellow potatoes – make sure you use potatoes that will hold their shape in soup, like yellow or gold potatoes)
- 1 lb tomatoes, diced (about 3 tomatoes)
- 2 lb corn kernels (frozen or fresh)
- 8 cloves of garlic, minced
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp salt (or more or less, to taste)
- 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 1 pack of bacon (12 oz) or approx. 1 lb of pork loin, sliced thin (which meat you choose depends on how healthy you want to me 😉 )
- extra virgin olive oil
- heavy cream and/or milk and/or cashew cream
- shredded cheese
- 1 or 2 bay leaves (if you use, don’t forget to remove them before blending the soup)
Optional Ingredients:
Directions
- In a large pot, saute the onion in a little bit of olive oil until softened.
- Add the jalopenos, red bell pepper, garlic, thyme, paprika, and pepper and saute for about a minute.
- Add the chicken broth, diced potatoes, diced tomatoes, corn, half the salt, and the bay leaves if using.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes).
- While the soup is simmering, cook the sliced pork loin in some oil (or cook the bacon). Use scissors or a knife to cut the cooked pork into tiny squares (or crumble the bacon with your hands).
- Remove the bay leaves (if using). Turn off the heat. Use an immersion blender to blend some of the soup, until you like the thickness. OR you can transfer 1/3 to 1/2 of the soup to a blender and blend it, then pour the blended soup back into the pot.
- Scoop about 2 tbsp of soup into a small bowl. Add the arrowroot powder into this bowl and stir until a slurry is formed. Pour slurry into the soup and stir well.
- Put the cut up cooked pork loin or crumbled bacon into the soup.
- Bring the soup to a gentle simmer (or 160 degrees).
- Add however much milk or heavy cream or cashew cream you want to make the soup creamier or thinner (optional). Add however much cheese you want and stir to melt it into the soup (optional).
- Bring the soup back to 160 degrees while stirring. Taste and add more salt, to taste.
CONNIE EXPLORES 