A Chowder by any other name is still a Soup

A few months ago, while visiting my bestie in Raleigh, NC, I sampled a quite wonderful roasted sweet corn chowder & dare I say, I was in love :) Fast forward to last week, a few co-workers & I decided to hit up Chili's for a quick lunch & what a tasty surprised awaited me that fateful day...Chili's now serves roasted sweet corn soup! All of this yummy soup...chowder...puree...or whatever you call it...got me thinking about creating my own pot of velvety smooth veggie goodness, and magically enough, it worked!

Here's the skinny:

olive oil
1 onion - diced
1 lb. carrots - chopped
1 clove garlic - minced
1/2 to 1 c. roasted or frozen corn
2-3 c. chicken broth
salt to taste
black pepper to taste

In soup pot sweat onion in olive oil for about 5-8min on medium heat; add carrots, stir to coat everything in olive oil goodness; cover & cook for about 10min; add the garlic & corn and cook for another 5min or so; add chicken broth and salt & pepper to taste; simmer until all veggies are quite tender - maybe another 10min or so. Once everything is sufficiently soft & tender, check your seasonings & adjust if needed; then puree in blender - mine took 2 batches; then put puree through a fine mesh seive to remove any chunkiness...unless you like that kind of thing :)

I added a dollop of sour cream to my bowl just for the tang factor, but you could use plain yogurt, heavy cream, Mexican crema, or just leave it plain...anyway you serve it, this soup is absolutely amazing!

Thank goodness for kitchen creativity that works out even better than you planned :)



PS ~ As a follow-up, this amazing soup/chowder/puree doubles as a fantstic pasta sauce!