Vegan MoFo Day 16: Last Night's Corn & Potato Chowder

Ah, adventures in cooking. Last night was another lesson in how not to chop onions, how not to burn onions, and how not to leave things bland.

First thing's first. I made Corn and Potato Chowder from Robin Robertson's 1000 Vegan Recipes - even though it was hot yesterday. Here were the ingredients:

Actually, carrots were not listed in the ingredients, but I had some left over from last week, so I thought I'd throw them in.

My prep left a little to be desired. I chopped the whole onion, and MAN - I should practice that. I was tearing up a LOT, and I really just couldn't chop very well. Tiny pieces here, big chunks there, disaster everywhere. I thought of the episode of that show "Master Chef" and how one of their first challenges was to chop onions. I would have failed.

Once prepped, I followed the recipe as written. Silly me. The first step says to heat the oil over medium heat, then add the onion and celery. Then, it says "Cover and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes." That's exactly what I did. No stirring, no sauteing, nothing.

I checked on the pot at about 7 minutes, and my onions were burning. Now, I thought this would happen, but why would I cover a pot, only to have to open it constantly in order to saute? I was pretty disappointed in that instruction.

I ended up having to empty the pot, set aside the cooked vegetables, and SCRUB the burnt onions off the bottom. It was hard work, and it took a while. Now I know to FOLLOW MY INSTINCTS. Once I got that under control, I followed the rest of the recipe.

Everything went fine. I pureed half the soup in the blender, and it wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be. Seasoning the soup was a little tricky for me, though. The only spices that the recipe called for were salt and pepper, to taste. I don't know how to season very well - I usually don't season food enough. I didn't want the soup to be too salty, so I had a little trouble with it. The soup was a little bland, probably because I used low-sodium vegetable broth. I decided to add a little ground nutmeg to give it something interesting.

The chowder turned out fine. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't AWESOME. Even with adding nutmeg, it still didn't taste quite... there. I'm having leftovers today, so maybe the seasoning has set in a bit. Thankfully, you couldn't taste the burned onion, but you could see it here and there.

Garnished with green onion

I'm not sure if I would make this again. Personally, I just need instructions and seasoning to be very descriptive, as I don't have a ton of cooking knowledge.

I don't actually know how I came across the recipe. I don't have the book, so I must have copied it from a website that posted it. I am curious to see the actual book though, and I would try another recipe from it.

headquarters