 |
| Dinner is served! |
As I mentioned a few blogs back, I've been trying to mix it up in the kitchen by making new dishes I've eaten a thousand times before but had never made myself. This was the case with the corn dogs, as it was the case with this next recipe I'd like to share with you...Potato + Corn Chowder! Although it (had) been unseasonably warm in California lately, it is still winter time which means it is still hot soup season (although I really do love a good bowl of soup anytime of the year). I had never made this recipe before or any soups prior to this one particular night but you bet I did have success making my first homemade soup!
I think I told you all before but my boyfriend's grandma had gotten him and I a slow cooker for Christmas which I'm soo in love with!! Makes my life so much easier, and the meals we've been making in it are delicious!! Of course this is the route I wanted to go to make my soup and so it was a slow cooker recipe that I found. Mind you I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago, and have been wanting to make this soup since. When I wrote this recipe down those few weeks back I spaced out and totally forgot to write down where I had found this bad boy, so I'm not sure which site to credit, my apologies. Okay let's get down to business...
 | |
| I've been putting this bad boy to work! |
This recipe is meant for a 7 quart slow cooker, so you may have to adjust it a bit depending on the size of your slow cooker. I have a 6 quart slow cooker so I adjusted the recipe by basically eyein' all of my ingredients as I added them to the slow cooker, keeping the quantities of this recipe in mind. As I did eyeball everything I can't tell you exactly how much of each ingredient I put in, so I'm just going to give you the recipe as I originally found it.
- 2 1/2 lb. Russet Potatoes (about 5 medium sized potatoes), diced not peeled
I used white potatoes instead of the russet potatoes because I prefer the taste.
- 8 C. (2 lbs) Kernel corn
I used a bag of white sweet frozen corn instead of the typical yellow corn. This did make my soup a tad on the sweeter side, but that's just my personal preference. I suggest you use yellow corn if you're going for more of a traditional chowder.
- 1 Sweet yellow onion (medium), finely chopped
I suggest cutting this last to spare your eyes!
- 1 C. Celery, finely chopped
- 6 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 4 C. Chicken stock
- 2 C. 1/2 & 1/2 or Heavy cream
- Salt + Peppa, lots!
Method
-Get yo ingredients ready! This step is going to take a minute.
-I cooked my bacon first so it would have time to cool before I crumbled it.
-Next it's time for the fun part, the washin', the cuttin', the pealin' (if you + carrots as I did) you get my drift.
-Add all your ingredients, except the cream, to your slow cooker. Cook at either temperature/time listed above.
-Once you've either pureed some or all of your soup from the crock pot you're going to want to put the soup back in the crock pot and add the 1/2 & 1/2 or heavy cream.
-Continue cooking uncovered about 15 minutes.
-Serve up and enjoy!!
I served corn bread alongside the soup which was super good, but I know not everyone out there is a corn fanatic so a good sour dough baguette would be fine too. There was a lot of leftovers as this soup recipe will give you a rather large batch. I know leftovers tend to get boring when you're on about day 4 which is why I suggest topping this soup with sour cream or cheese, maybe even some bacon, just to mix it up a little.
Healthy Modification: As promised I will try to add any modifications I can think of in order to make any recipe I post somewhat "healthier." Being that this is mostly a veggie filled soup it's already on the healthier side. One modification that may sway it a little farther towards that direction is to maybe use low fat/fat free half & half/heavy cream or you could cut the bacon out.
My Verdict: Soup turned out delicious! I really liked this recipe and will be making it again, but next time I'm recruiting help with the prep part of this venture! There was just a ton of veggies to cut up! But it was definitely all worth it in the end! :)
Corn + Potato Chowder: Slow Cooker Edition
Prep Time:
30-40 mins would be my guess.
This is somewhat of a labor intensive recipe as
all soup recipes usually are.
Cook Time:
Low for 10 hours or High for 6 hours
Whatcha Need
- 8 oz. Bacon, cooked + crumbled
I typically buy real high quality bacon, but as I was just going to crumble it into this soup
I didn't think it was necessary to buy the highest quality bacon. Don't get me wrong I still got good bacon but I just wasn't as particular as I usually am. On another note if it was up to me I wouldn't even have the bacon involved as I love just veggies, but I compromised, and it was delicious!
Prep Time:
30-40 mins would be my guess.
This is somewhat of a labor intensive recipe as
all soup recipes usually are.
Cook Time:
Low for 10 hours or High for 6 hours
Whatcha Need
- 8 oz. Bacon, cooked + crumbled
I typically buy real high quality bacon, but as I was just going to crumble it into this soup
I didn't think it was necessary to buy the highest quality bacon. Don't get me wrong I still got good bacon but I just wasn't as particular as I usually am. On another note if it was up to me I wouldn't even have the bacon involved as I love just veggies, but I compromised, and it was delicious!
- 2 1/2 lb. Russet Potatoes (about 5 medium sized potatoes), diced not peeled
I used white potatoes instead of the russet potatoes because I prefer the taste.
- 8 C. (2 lbs) Kernel corn
I used a bag of white sweet frozen corn instead of the typical yellow corn. This did make my soup a tad on the sweeter side, but that's just my personal preference. I suggest you use yellow corn if you're going for more of a traditional chowder.
- 1 Sweet yellow onion (medium), finely chopped
I suggest cutting this last to spare your eyes!
- 1 C. Celery, finely chopped
- 6 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 4 C. Chicken stock
- 2 C. 1/2 & 1/2 or Heavy cream
- Salt + Peppa, lots!
Method
-Get yo ingredients ready! This step is going to take a minute.
-I cooked my bacon first so it would have time to cool before I crumbled it.
-Next it's time for the fun part, the washin', the cuttin', the pealin' (if you + carrots as I did) you get my drift.
-Add all your ingredients, except the cream, to your slow cooker. Cook at either temperature/time listed above.
 |
| By the end of your cook time your soup will look like this, with most of the broth soaked up. |
-The last 15 minutes of your cook time is when you're going to (possibly) puree your soup in a blender. Let me tell ya about this step. I started to puree a little bit of my soup, about a 1/2 cup, in the blender to see if I liked the texture/consistency, turns out I did not like either at all. I did add the little bit of soup I had pureed to the rest of the soup which turned out great! I would definitely puree 1/2 cup or so of the soup and add it again as I liked how the chowder was soupy but it didn't all look like baby food or something and still had some bigger pieces of veggies in it which I really liked.
-Once you've either pureed some or all of your soup from the crock pot you're going to want to put the soup back in the crock pot and add the 1/2 & 1/2 or heavy cream.
-Continue cooking uncovered about 15 minutes.
-Serve up and enjoy!!
I served corn bread alongside the soup which was super good, but I know not everyone out there is a corn fanatic so a good sour dough baguette would be fine too. There was a lot of leftovers as this soup recipe will give you a rather large batch. I know leftovers tend to get boring when you're on about day 4 which is why I suggest topping this soup with sour cream or cheese, maybe even some bacon, just to mix it up a little.
Healthy Modification: As promised I will try to add any modifications I can think of in order to make any recipe I post somewhat "healthier." Being that this is mostly a veggie filled soup it's already on the healthier side. One modification that may sway it a little farther towards that direction is to maybe use low fat/fat free half & half/heavy cream or you could cut the bacon out.
Until next time friends...Cheers!!
P.S. We are looking for some foodies out there who have some recipes they'd like to share for future food features!! See our Contact page for more info!! :)
