Recipe!! New England Vegetable Chowder

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone is having a great start to their week. Yes, I have officially lost my mind. I am a huge fan of the typical New England Clam Chowder, but since I have altered my diet, I have to say, I love the vegetable chowder just as much. Surprisingly, I did not need to alter a lot to this recipe. So for this chowder, we omit the water and littleneck clams with a seaweed infused vegetable stock. Replace clam meat with chopped seaweed, corn, and zucchini. Replace heavy cream with almond or rice milk. Finally, we need to omit the bacon from the recipe. But fear not! Replace that with grapeseed oil and smoked tempeh. It sounds strange, but trust me. I won’t ever eat chowder the same way. Enjoy everyone!!!

-Maranda

New England Vegetable Chowder Recipe

Makes: 10 portions

Ingredients:

• 1 oz grapeseed oil
• 2 oz minced smoked tempeh
• 32 oz Vegetable Stock
• 2 oz dried seaweed
• 4 oz diced onion
• ¼ oz minced garlic
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp chopped thyme
• 12 oz peeled and diced potatoes
• 4 oz fresh corn kernels
• 4 oz medium-diced zucchini
• 20 oz almond or rice milk
• 4 oz cooking sherry
• ½ tsp salt
• A pinch of black pepper
• ½ tsp Tabasco sauce
• ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 oz flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 2 oz oyster crackers, as needed for garnish

Directions:

1. Heat a soup pot over medium he at. Add the oil and minced tempeh, and cook slowly until the tempeh is lightly crisp, about 8 minutes. In a seperate pot, heat your vegetable stock, add seaweed, and steep the seaweed until rehydrated. Strain out seaweed.
2. Add onion and garlic, cook for about 5-7 minutes.
3. Add flour and cook over low heat for about 2 minutes.
4. Whisk in vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes. It should be about the consistency of heavy cream. Add bay leaf and thyme.
5. Add potatoes and simmer until tender. Add corn and zucchini and cook for 5 minutes.
6. Place chopped seaweed with almond/rice milk in a saucepan and simmer. Add seaweed and almond/rice milk to the soup. Simmer for 2 minutes.
7. Stir in sherry. Season with salt, pepper, Tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce. Add parsley. Serve with your oyster crackers if desired.