Corn Chowder Recipe – Perfect For Vegan and Gluten Free Diners

At least once a week in our farm kitchen, we make a big pot of soup, have it for supper and then save the leftovers to make lunches more hearty the rest of the week. Today, I’m going to share with you one of my finest of all recipes, so creamy, savory and soul-satisfying, I believe it will become a favorite in your home. Corn Chowder combines three of the finest Native American foods – corn, potatoes and onions – into a rich chowder with a truly ambrosial flavor. My recipe updates the old New England standby (heavy in animal fats and sometimes wheat flour) into a really healthy dish that both vegans and gluten-free diners will stand up and cheer for, as will just about anyone else you share a mugful with. Wonderful news for you new homesteading cooks: this gourmet chowder takes about 1 hour total to prepare, from farm to table. Follow my simple directions and you can’t go wrong.

Ingredients in Corn Chowder
Feeds 3 hungry adults – double the recipe for a bigger crowd

2 Large Potatoes
1 Small Onion
1-2 Ears Of Corn
1 1/2 Cups Almond Milk
3 Cups Water
Sprigs of Fresh Thyme Or 1 t. Dried Thyme
2 T. Minced Fresh Chives Or Parsley Or Both
4 T. E.V. Olive Oil
5 Dashes Or Grates of Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper To Taste

Notes On Choosing Your Produce
It goes without saying, the fresher your corn is, the better. We pick ours right before we add it to the chowder, but fresh from a local farmer or farm market is second best. Also, this soup can be made in winter with about 3/4 C. of frozen corn, though it is not quite as amazing as when you prepare it from fresh green summer corn. Please use only ORGANIC corn in this recipe or in any other, as this is your family’s only protection from exposure to genetically modified corn which is not safe for human consumption. If it’s not organic, chances are it’s GMO and this defeats your purpose of serving up a good and healthy dish to your loved ones.

Choose organic potatoes, onions, herbs and olive oil, too. In this batch of corn chowder, I’m using two large Yukon Gold potatoes, but the chowder is also quite good with russets, too. If the potatoes are small, use 3 or 4. I prefer a red onion in this soup, but if you’ve got yellow or white, that’s fine, too.

Don’t overdo it on the nutmeg. This unusual ingredient is meant to add just a whisper of fragrant spice to the dish. Don’t overpower the other delicate flavors with too much.

Easy Directions For Making Corn Chowder

Step 1
Peel and dice up your raw potatoes. Peel and thinly slice your onion. Put the olive oil into a pot over medium heat and add the onions.

Stir fry the onions until they are just barely translucent. Add your dried or fresh thyme now.

Step 2
Your potatoes should be cut into small dice, as this shortens the cooking time of the soup. Toss your diced potatoes into the pot and stir fry them for another 2 minutes, just to coat them with the good onion-y oil.

Step 3
Add your liquids. Remember, this is 1 part almond milk to 2 parts water. It’s helpful to understand this if you need to double or triple the recipe. You can use a different milk, if you prefer, such as rice milk or soy milk, but I find that almond milk is the best possible match of this subtly-flavored chowder. Add your pepper and nutmeg now. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot to make sure the onions and potatoes aren’t stuck to it. Once the chowder boils, turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

Step 4
While the chowder simmers, shuck your corn and then remove the kernels from the cob by scraping them with a knife onto a plate. Have your minced chives or parsley ready, too. Take a look at the soup and see if you can easily mash the potato dice with a fork. If you can, get out your potato masher and mash up all the potato so that the watery soup becomes a much thicker liquid – in point of fact, a chowder. Once this is done, add your corn and minced herbs and shut off the burner. Let the corn cook for just 3 more minutes by sitting in the hot chowder. Cooking the corn over high heat or for longer than this will only result in tough kernels that have lost some of their sweetness. Your last step is to salt the chowder, to your taste.

Your finished chowder should be a pale gold or soft white, freckled with flecks of pepper and nutmeg, tiny dots of rich olive oil, pretty with the green, fragrant herbs and chock full of sweet, juicy corn. Serve steaming hot in a thick pottery bowl!

For millennia, corn has been the revered staple of America’s First People. Summer is our time to appreciate the fleeting blessings of green corn and to give thanks to the ancestors whose work in times past put corn in our hands today. While I don’t think you can beat farm-to-table corn on the cob for an experience of the true soul of sweet corn, corn chowder is absolutely one of the most delicious alternates for showcasing this life-giving, abundant, generous grain.

Don’t throw away those husks! Your organic corn husks can be used to wrap tamales, as components of a dried flower arrangement or to make a little corn husk doll, such as the one shown in the above photo. Out of respect for corn, we try to make sure that every part of this precious plant is used, at the very least as an input into our compost pile so that everything is appreciated and nothing is wasted.

Storing and Serving Suggestions For Corn Chowder
If you don’t eat all of your corn chowder at one sitting, let it cool down and then put the leftovers in a sealed mason jar in the fridge. It will keep very well for at least a week. When you reheat it, make sure to do so as briefly as possible, or the corn will lose its softness and sweetness.

We served our corn chowder tonight with our vegan sesame cheese sandwiches on broiled polenta bread, layered with garden fresh tomatoes and lemon cucumbers, our snappy pickled peppers and sliced avocado. You couldn’t ask for a better combination than a steaming mug of corn chowder and a crisp, savory sandwich! The apple trees are starting to give us their first gifts, so I made a little apple tart for dessert. As I type up this corn chowder recipe, I am one full, satisfied woman. I’d like you to know the happy feeling I have right now, and I hope you will give this simple, sublime recipe a try.