Is there a better winter lunch than a warming, vegetable-packed soup? Creamy with a hint spice, this oil-free coconut corn chowder couldn’t fit the bill better.
Unlike more traditional chowders, this one has no oil, no butter, no cream or anything like that in it so it’s a perfect healthy option and gets its creaminess from the coconut milk. This coconut corn chowder cooks quickly and if you have a blender that can take hot liquids then this can be whipped up in about forty minutes start to finish; since I don’t, I allowed it to cool first then blended it in batches.
This recipe calls for one green chilli as the ones I used were particularly hot, however if you have a milder batch then you might want to use two. Alternatively, if you don’t want to go too spicy then de-seed the chilli first to lower the heat level a little. I chopped up a second chilli to sprinkle on top – again, follow or skip this step depending on your spice preference.
You can use any kind of sweetcorn to make this corn chowder: fresh (cooked and husked), frozen or tinned. Naturally fresh would taste the best, however since it’s out of season at the moment (in the UK that is) using frozen or tinned are perfectly acceptable alternatives.
To make sure that the delicate flavours in the soup really shined through I used filtered water to make the vegetable stock, via my newest addition to my kitchen – the Russel Hobbs Purity Glass Kettle. The kettle has a built-in BRITA filter that removes impurities such as chlorine, lead and copper. I’ve never used any kind of filtration before but was pleased to learn that BRITA’s filters don’t contain any harmful materials and they have a great recycling programme to deal with empty cartridges responsibly.
Plus the glass kettle is pretty attractive, no? It looks a little more purple in the photo, but it’s actually a blue light meaning it matches my kitchen superbly!
- 520g sweetcorn
- 3 sticks of celery, diced
- 1 white onion, finely chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
- 1 large potato, cut into small cubes
- 1 tin coconut milk
- 300ml vegetable stock
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
- 1 green chilli pepper, finely chopped
- 1tsp smoked paprika
- 1tsp apple cider vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- To serve (optional): 1tbsp sweetcorn; 1tbsp chopped red pepper; 2tsp dessicated coconut; 1 extra green chilli pepper
- Prepare the ingredients and add everything together in a large pan, except for the coconut milk. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat slightly, cover and simmer for five minutes.
- After five minutes, stir in the coconut milk, recover and simmer for around 20 minutes until the potato has fully softened.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool (if needed - if your blender can take hot liquids then blend immediately). Blend to form a smooth thick soup.
- Return to the pan and heat. If you are not eating it all at once, only heat as much as you need. The remainder can be refrigerated or frozen.
- Serve with any of the following toppings according to taste: whole sweetcorn kernels, chopped red pepper, chopped chilli, dessicated coconut.
BRITA kindly sent me a kettle to try out and asked me to make a healthy soup recipe using it, however the recipe, all ideas and all content here is my own. Thanks to the brands who support The Tofu Diaries – to find out more read my disclaimer.
