Potato Bacon Chowder

Chowder is relatively easy - take your favorite veggies, cook them til they are soft, add some milk, blend it all up and you have a chowder. Toss some saltine crackers on top or some seafood in the mix? You'll look like a pro.

The difference between cream of whatever vegetable soup and chowder is a little vague, and wikipedia was of no help. So, you can call this soup what you like - but Potato Bacon Chowder sounds yummy, and this was yummy. Enough said.

Potato Bacon Chowder 

4 cups potatoes, diced (peels left on) cooked or uncooked*
1 c chopped onion
2 Tbs butter (use oil to make vegan)
2 c Chicken Stock or milk (use veggie stock to make vegan)
(3-4 cups water if potatoes are uncooked)
6 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled like bacon bits (omit to make vegan)


In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onion and saute. If the potatoes are uncooked, add and stir for 1 minute. Add 3 cups water (possibly more) until potatoes are covered. Let simmer for 15 minutes, check periodically to make sure potatoes are still covered by water.

Add 2 cups Chicken stock or milk (milk will make for a creamier soup, and arguably make this more of a chowder). Using an immersion blender, blend your soup until it is creamy. Add the crumbled bacon. Serve immediately with warm bread.


Couple Notes:
* I used leftover potatoes (and incidentally a few carrots and bits of garlic) from the Roast Chicken with Root Veggies. I also had some leftover mashed potatoes from a bagel recipe (which I'll post soon) and some leftover baked potato and sweet potato from a meal a couple weeks ago that my kids just wouldn't eat. I had just tossed the leftovers into a ziploc bag and into the freezer. You'll find if you save bits of leftovers like these, you'll quickly come up with enough for a whole meal - no reason to throw away a whole meal just because it presents itself in pieces.

*  If you are making this vegan, add some salt and potentially some more veggies - carrots, garlic, sweet potato to give the soup some more flavor. The longer you saute them, the more flavor you'll have. Potatoes and veggie stock won't create the same result on their own. If you like veggie bacon, add that, too.

* If the soup is too thick, add some more liquid - milk, water, or chicken stock. If it's too thin, add some more raw veggies and let them cook. Blend again. I just don't recommend blending bacon - bacon is meant to be eaten in recognizable form.

Enjoy!

Roast Tomato & Red Pepper Base

I first started doing this little recipe when I wanted to make a soup, and it was a massive success. Potentially the yummiest invented thing to come from my kitchen yet. After the soup was such a success, I thought I'd experiment with what else this recipe was good for - risotto was a massive hit.

Within the next couple weeks, I'm sure we'll make the Roast Red Pepper and Tomato Soup, but for right now I just wanted to give you the base recipe since I'm using it this week to make a risotto.

Roast Red Pepper and Tomato Base 

2 Red peppers, de-seeded and quartered
5 lbs tomatoes, halved
1 bulb garlic, head shaved off (in other words, just cut a bit off the top of the entire bulb so you can see into some of the individual cloves)
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Spread the red peppers and tomatoes closely on a 9x13 cookie sheet with sides (alternatively, you could use a roasting pan or 9x13 baking dish- really anything that is oven proof and will hold about 1/2' deep of liquid). Drizzle with olive oil.

Drizzle the bulb of garlic with olive oil and wrap tightly in foil - make sure the garlic can't be seen, feel free to go a bit overboard on the foil wrapping here. Place the foil-wrapped bulb of garlic on the baking sheet with the peppers and tomatoes.

Place the baking sheet in the oven. Leave for 2hours approximately, or until tomatoes and red peppers have sufficiently roasted. You'll be able to tell because they'll be quite soft, shriveled, and maybe even a bit blackened on the edges (no problem!)

Remove from the oven and, if not using immediately, allow to cool.

Unwrap the garlic and squeeze the garlic from the shell into a deep bowl. The garlic should be a soft paste, and will have a very warm garlic smell without the bite often associated with fresh garlic.

Add the tomatoes, peppers, and any juice/oil remaining on the baking pan to the deep bowl. Use your immersion blender to blend the concoction to a smooth soup consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender - see my entry on Sweet Potato and Chili Soup if you're interested in my opinion on immersion blenders. In summary - worth a purchase.

Use immediately in any desired recipe or store in airtight containers in the freezer for up to 6 weeks.

Sweet Potato & Chilies Soup

Soup night of week #1. I chose Sweet Potato soup since I knew I would have extra sweet potatoes after Roast Root Veggie Salad night.

After eating it, I would rate it as a good soup - but not a great one. We'll make it again later this winter, but I think I may try it with roast walnuts and nutmeg instead of chilies. With that said, this is a good soup recipe, and definitely has a unique, sweet & spicy flavor. Definitely worth a try.

Sweet Potato & Chilies Soup 

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (more or less depending on desired spiciness)
1 tsp paprika
5 cups sweet potatoes, diced
4 cups chicken stock
* alternatively, you could use vegetable stock to make this a vegetarian meal

In a soup pot, saute the onion, garlic, red pepper, and paprika until slowly browned. Add the diced sweet potato and saute until slightly browned. In my opinion, the longer you let the sweet potatoes saute, the nicer flavor you'll have. Think sweet potato fries turned into soup - um, yummy.

When the sweet potatoes are nicely browned (or whenever you want, really) add the 4 cups stock. Reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer for approx 20 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup to a creamy consistency.  Alternatively, if you don't have an immersion blender - turn off the soup, get in your car, and go buy one. Come home, turn the soup back on, use your new immersion blender. Stand in wonder at the fact you ever made homemade soup without an immersion blender.

Ok, in all seriousness - making creamy soups without an immersion blender is possible, but definitely more laborious and messy. However, if you don't have an immersion blender or don't want one, just transfer the soup to the blender in batches, blend, and then return to the stove once it's all blended.

Once your soup is blended, in whatever way you chose to blend - it is ready to serve. It's delicious with warm bread, sourdough would be amazing.

There you go - pretty easy. Also a great recipe for a quick meal at home.

Make ahead tips:
* do all your chopping anytime within 24 hours before you make the soup, put the sweet potatoes in water if you are chopping them more than an hour before use.

Let me know what you think, and I'll let you know when we do it again with roasted walnuts and nutmeg! I think it'll be like Christmas in a bowl...