This recipe was a revelation. Finally I’d found a veggie chowder with the thick, satisfying texture that I remember from chowders I’d had on visits to the US in the past (during my non-veggie phase). I’ve made various vegetarian chowder recipes over the past 30 or so years but they’ve all been a little bit ‘thin’.
I think the secret ingredient in this one is nothing more than a tablespoon of flour but it does make all the difference. I also prefer the almond milk in this over using dairy.
The smoked paprika I use from Seasoned Pioneers is quite hot so I didn’t use any chilli but you could add some chilli flakes when you are frying the onion if you want to.
I use tinned sweetcorn in this recipe. I usually use frozen sweetcorn because it’s so easy to have a bag in the freezer but I think the extra sweetness of tinned corn works well here.
I’ve put the celery as optional. It is nice in there but if I didn’t need it for anything else I wouldn’t buy a whole head of celery just for this.
This is a substantial soup so you really don’t need anything alongside it.
Vegan Sweetcorn Chowder
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 stick of celery, finely chopped (optional)
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 250g floury potatoes (one large-ish potato)
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 500 ml almond milk
- 200 g tin of sweetcorn
Instructions
- Finely chop the onion, celery (if using) and garlic.
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.
- Fry the onion, celery and garlic gently for about 5 minutes to soften.
- While that's frying peel and chop the potato into small dice – about 1 cm or a bit smaller. The smaller you chop the quicker they cook!
- Add the paprika to the onion mixture and stir and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the chopped potato and flour and stir well for a minute or so.
- Add the almond milk, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the cubes of potato are cooked.
- Drain the sweetcorn, add to the chowder and bring back to the boil.
- This step is optional but I like to take out about half the chowder at this point, blend it and add it back in. It's not essential because the flour thickens the chowder anyway but it makes it really creamy.
- Season to taste with salt and black pepper and serve with a little sprinkle of paprika to garnish.