Sunday, November 8, 2009

Vegan Potato and Vegetable Chowder


Apparently my mind can only be creative and plan one part of life at a time. For the past few weeks, the creativity in my cooking has been lacking... but my new home is almost completely furnished, decorated, and ready for entertaining!
As the weather falls (yes, falls) into the 70's here in Florida, soup is all I want! During the past few weeks, I've made large pots of Minestrone, Curry Stewpot, and Pasta e Fagioli. However, I decided it was time to make something new!
I thought about making a baked potato soup, but I wanted it to be lighter and have more vegetables. As I was making this chowder, it just kind of happened, and it turned out to be vegan (except for my sprinkle of cheddar cheese on top!) The way I get my chowder to be so creamy and still vegan and healthy is by adding half the potatoes to the vegetables in a dice and pureeing the rest with vegetable stock I finished the soup with a drizzle of hot sauce and it was absolutely perfect! Next time I might add some pureed cannelini beans (or whole) to give it a little more protein.


Vegan Potato and Vegetable Chowder

2 tbsp. EVOO
2 cups sliced, well cleaned leeks
1 cup sliced carrots
1 red bell pepper, minced
1 red onion, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 lbs. yukon gold potatoes, diced
Salt and pepper
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup corn kernels
1 tbsp. minced parsley
Garnishes - cheddar cheese, hot sauce, chives, crumbled bacon

Slice leeks into thin, half moons, add to a colander with large holes, rinse under running water for a minute. Swish around with fingers while rinsing to get rid of all of the dirt and sand.
Heat a dutch oven over medium heat, add EVOO, leeks, carrots, peppers, onion, garlic and half of the potatoes.
Season with salt and pepper, saute' for 10 minutes.
Add 2 cups of vegetable stock to a small soup pot.
Add half the potatoes to the vegetable stock, bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes, or until tender.
Add corn and 4 cups of vegetable stock to the vegetables, stir, turn to low.
Add stock and potato mixture to a blender, puree until smooth.
Pour into dutch oven with vegetables. Add parsley, stir to combine.
Taste soup, adjust seasonings.
Ladle into a bowl and top with garnishes.

5 comments:

Kelly said...

I think its okay to be lacking in cooking while you set up a house, thats a big job!
The chowder looks delicious- I don't like normal chowders but I think I would like this vegan take on it!

Joanne said...

I like the potato trick to make this creamy. It looks so hearty! Definitely a good dish to warm me up as the temps fall here in NY to the 40's!!!

Good job decorating, furnishing, etc. It must have been so much work!

Bridges and Bites said...

That is a REALLY good idea to puree the potatoes to make it creamy! I am going to try that next time I make potato soup!

Annalisa said...

This sounds so yummy!

Here's a great tip I recently picked up: For cleaning leeks I swish them cut up in a bowl of water and let them rest for a minute. Skim the top (or use a slotted spoon) for the leeks as all the dirt stays at the bottom. One bowl of gritty leek and potato soup converted me :-)

Good luck with settling in!

Kelly said...

Congrats on decorating the new home. I feel like I am constantly asking for you to post photos of something so I hope I don't seem like a stalker. :-) However, I would love to see it.

I also meant to tell you that I made a variation on your pumpkin meatloaf last week and it was fantastic.