Creamy (Vegan) Corn Chowder

Ooooooh yes, that's right.  Amateur photographer mistakenly gets self captured in the spoon.  Oops! 

Okay, seriously, that not what I originally wrote "that's right" for.  

Oooooh yes, that's right. Corn Chowder.  

Yep! For us non-dairy folk! Chowder! Crazy.  

Now, firstly, I have to admit, I hated corn chowder for most of my life.  So it's kind of weird that I would get all excited for it.  But, tastebuds maturing maybe.... I had a craving for it.  And now that I think of it, I wonder if I hated it growing up because of the condensed milk?  My tummy does not love condensed milk.  (Well, any milky-milk for that matter.) I remember saying as a kid I couldn't stand the smell of chowder.  Or the taste of the broth.   

Haha.  Yeah.  

Well, this broth is AMAZING. And no, I'm not tooting my own horn.  The internet is filled with great recipes (and no so great ones, be aware) for things you may want to make.  It helps to do a little research before diving in on your own. Especially since I still feel like I'm not sure what I'm doing most of the time...!  I mainly took ideas from these two awesome blogs Ohmyveggies and Loveandlemons. They have the great idea to use potatoes to help thicken it.  And coconut milk.  Um, yeah.  SO good.  Can't go wrong with coconut milk.

I got into this whole chowder things because I've been looking for new soups to try.  Well, new recipes in general to try out.  I'm finding that since I'm home now... a lot...  which I don't mind, but I totally get the 'stuck in a rut' thing when it comes to meal planning.  Even though I own this blog filled with dinner options, I still seem to stick to the same rotation!  Even with random CSA veggies filling our fridge every week!  See - it's normal.  You're not alone. 

Anyway, a bit off topic there, but getting back to the chowder thing.  I seem to really like taking a meal I had growing up or a common meal in anyone's house and revamping it to give it a dairy-free, sugar-free or 'healthier in some way' spin.  I also love when they turn out vegan or gluten-free.  Just gives everyone the option to enjoy it and not worry about what they're eating.

And with that, I give you this vegan, gluten/dairy/soy/sugar/nut (aside from coconut)/egg free meal in a bowl.  Yummers. Chowder. Mmmm. (Who am I?)

Total Time: 30 minutes, give or take a few for how many distractions you have in your kitchen (aka the whining, teething, 11 month old in mine made this take longer than it should have)

Ingredients:
1 tsbp-ish coconut oil for cooking
1 onion, diced (or a bunch of finely chopped chives will do fine, it's chive season!)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 potatoes, peeled (if desired) and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped (if you have it!  I did not)
2 cups fresh or frozen corn
pinch sea salt/pepper
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp paprika
1 can coconut milk
2 cups water + 1 organic vegetable bouillon cube
1 tsp white wine vinegar or lemon/lime squeeze if you don't have the vinegar!

What to do:

1) Heat oil over medium heat in soup pot.  Add onion and garlic.  Saute until smelling amazing. 

2) Add potatoes, carrots, and celery.  Sauce for about 5 minutes, until just starting to soften. 

3) Add salt, pepper, celery seed, paprika, coconut milk, water + bouillon.  Stir to evenly combine.  Turn up the heat to high to bring to a boil.  Add the vinegar, or citrus, and turn heat to simmer/medium to let the vegetables soften and absorb all of that awesome coconut milk and spices.  This might take about 10-15 minutes.   Test with a fork, piercing into a carrot to see if it's done.  

4) Remove from heat.  Taste test to see if you prefer more salt.  I did.  Now, you can eat it just like this, once it cools a bit, or, to get it even thicker, take an immersion blender and blend just a few times randomly throughout the pot.  (Or scoop out a quarter of the soup into a blender, blend, and return back to the pot.)  You'll get this awesomely thick, creamy texture without the heavy dairy cream! 

5) To make it pretty, add a couple chopped chives to the top. And a sprinkle of paprika looks good, too.