Creamy Cheezy Corn Chowder

It's been cold around here in South Texas lately....COLD!  I'm serious!  When it's cold outside, all I can think about is warm food...not salads.  With that being said, I have been naughty about not having my daily all-raw salad at lunch and replacing it with warm comforting cooked, but still vegan, food.  I have been keeping up with my green smoothie/green juice throughout the beginning of the day...although a nice warm stack of whole grain pancakes sure was tempting!  Ha!  Anyway, yesterday I was jonesin' for something hot and creamy, and came across a recipe on the internet, which I ended up tweaking to meet my "needs."  This corn chowder was just what I needed!

This recipe can be very versatile.  Don't have nutritional yeast?  no biggie, it will still be creamy, just not cheesy.  Want it spicy?  Sure!  Either add a can of Rotel, or a couple jalapenos.  I think this chowder would be great with a little spicy kick, but I didn't have any jalapenos on hand.  

TRY THIS RECIPE!  It is sooooo good!  My mother informed me the other day I was not the best at being clear in the "instruction" section of my recipes, so please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.  Sorry guys, I just assume everyone knows how to boil water, spice "to taste," and what stove top temperature to cook at.  Here's the basics, guys:  if you feel like something's missing when cooking, it's the salt...add more.  The most common mistake when cooking, in my opinion, is people do not use enough salt!  Salt goes in EVERYTHING.  It is the "depth" of taste.  If you want something to cook faster, then chop it smaller, and vice versa.   Sautéing something?  Use medium - med/high heat.  I almost never use the "low" setting on my stove top.  I also never know how much olive oil I use when sautéing.  I assume it's around 2-3 Tbs....just make sure you have enough to lightly cover the bottom of the pan.  Again, please don't hesitate to ask me your questions.  I know I'm bad about not being thorough in the instructions, but I'm just not use to it because I'm such an "instinct cook" in the kitchen.  Enjoy!

Cheezy CREAMY Vegan Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 small chopped yellow onion, 1/2 large yellow onion
• 1 cup small chopped carrots
• 1-2 fresh de-seeded chopped jalapenos (optional)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups water + 1 Tbs vegetable base (or the equivalent in bouillon cubes/stock)
• 2 cups frozen sweet corn (divided in half)
• 1 Tbs dried parsley
• 1 tsp. pepper
• Salt (roughly close to a Tbs by the finish)
• 3 Tbs Nutritional Yeast (optional cheeze sauce)
• 1/2 tsp. paprika (optional cheeze sauce)
• 3/4 cup raw cashews (cream base)
• 2 cups water (cream base)

Instructions:

In a soup pot, heat roughly 2 - 3 Tbs olive oil in the bottom of the pain over medium high heat.  Once heated, add chopped onion, carrot (and jalapeno if using), parsley, about 1 tsp. salt, and pepper.  After adding veggies, turn heat down to medium.  Cover with lid in between stirring so the steam will help cook the carrots faster.  Sauté until carrots are almost tender, and then add chopped garlic.  Continue cooking until all veggies are completely tender, but not mush.   Add 2 cups water + veggie base/bouillon or stock equivalent AND 1 cup of the frozen corn.  Bring to a boil, then turn off heat.

At this point, use an immersion blender to completely blend mixture to creamy consistency.........OR.........(read the next bullet points about blender blending.)

• Let cool to warm, or completely. 
• As for myself, I made this part at lunch, put in the fridge, went back to work, and then finished the rest of the recipe after work at 5pm.  If you're wanting to make this recipe all together at one time, the reasoning for letting this mixture cool some is because it's going in the blender, and blending a super hot mixture can be dangerous. 
• Take cooled soup mixture, and pour into a blender.  Blend until completely homogenized (smoothie consistency).  Once blended, return mixture back to soup pan/stove, and heat at medium temp. stirring frequently as to not burn the now thick mixture.  

To the now blended mixture,  add the other 1 cup frozen corn.  For a cheezy flavor, wisk in the nutritional yeast and paprika at this time.

Rinse blender with hot tap water, and return to motor base.  Add cashews and 2 cups water.  Blend on high until a complete milk-like consistency is achieved, and absolutely NO pieces of cashew remain.  This requires blending for a few minutes, depending on your blender.  *soaking your cashews anywhere from 3 hours to overnight will make them the easiest to blend, but un-soaked cashews can be used, as well, and will reach the desired consistency.  Un-soaked cashews will just need to be blended a little longer.

Add cashew milk mixture to the warmed blended veggie mixture in pot.  Bring soup up to desired hot temperature, but do not boil.  Salt and pepper to taste, and then serve!

Merry Christmas,

Claire