Recipe - Sweetcorn & Potato Chowder (Soup) - Time (40mins) Skill (Easy) Eating (Easy)

Morning. I've decided what cooking will be done by my carer this week - based on what's going to go off - and that's potatoes.  And I've not had soup for ages. So, as the sweetcorn in the freezer has turned into an iceberg of frozen air & actual vegetable, Sweetcorn & Potato Chowder it is!

Image taken from Ocado's Sweetcorn Chowder Recipe

What is it? A vegetarian soup made from sweetcorn, potato, onion and herbs. You can eat it lumpy or whizz it with a handmixer to make it smooth.


Time Required - about 10mins to prepare then about 30mins to cook. 

The great thing about soups, if you can move about to serve yourself, is that if the carer runs out of time, once they've had it at a fast boil for about 5 mins, they can just put the lid on & switch the hob down very low and it will continue to cook, but slower, it'll take about an hour.  Then it's easy to decant the soup out of the pan with a ladle by yourself. How can you tell it's done? Stab a piece of potato with a skewer or fork, it's done if the potato is easy to stab, it's nice & easy to eat if the potato starts to fall apart.

Cooking Skill Required - Easy.  Need to be able to scrub & peel potatoes and chop them into small evenly sized chunks (small and even chunks cooks quicker)

Eating Ability Required - Easy, not much chewing required, and Very Easy if you use a handmixer to liquidise it.

Handmixers can be bought from major supermarkets for about £5 like HERE, just be careful NOT to use it on very hot soup, the plastic bit protecting the blade can deform (yup. learnt my lesson there giggle).  If you don't have a handmixer, then in theory, once the soup is VERY well cooked, it can be done the traditional way, pushed through a metal sieve using a metal spoon, but it takes ages and your carer will be grumpy so best not!

SWEETCORN AND POTATO CHOWDER

Portion Size - 4  (about 200 calories per serving)

Ingredients - Essential

1 large Onion - chopped (or two handfuls of frozen ready chopped onion)
325g can of Sweetcorn (or same amount frozen sweetcorn - loose not on the cob)
3 medium Potatoes - scrubbed, peeled and chopped into small evenly sized chunks
2 pints of Stock (I like Marigold Bouillon Powder but any vegetable stock or chicken stock cube would work)
Herbs - teaspoon of dried herb or some fresh chives or whatever you think might be nice!
Salt & Pepper
1 tbsp (tablespoon) Creme Fraiche or Yoghurt (omit if you can't have dairy, it just adds a richer taste at the end).

Ingredients - Optional

If you are trying to gain weight:
Use 1 pint of milk and 1 pint of stock instead of just stock. And/or add a knob of butter at stage 1.

If you want a richer taste/ bit more colour:
Use skimmed milk if you are trying to lose weight, with the skimmed milk it's 220 calories per portion.
2 medium red peppers washed deseeded and chopped into small even chunks
2 garlic cloves or a tsp (teaspoon) of dried garlic
1 tbsp (tablespoon) ground cumin
1 tbsp (tablespoon) ground coriander or dried leaf coriander, or coriander seeds, even chopped fresh coriander (you'll need a handful if fresh)

Preparation

1. Put the stock in the pan on the hob, bring to a simmer, add the chopped onions, potatoes. Add the sweetcorn and herbs. Plus any of the optional ingredients that you're using.
    
2. Bring to a gentle boil for 5 minutes, then reduce to a simmer (a gentle boil is where the liquid is obviously boiling/ moving but not furiously spitting out at you, a simmer is where the liquid is gently moving by itself) for 25 minutes.
   
3. Test to see if the potato is cooked with a skewer, it should be soft and easy to stab, just about to fall into pieces.
   
4. Turn off the heat and wait for 5 mins, then use the stick blender to liquidise the soup if needed, otherwise,
   
5. Serve into a bowl, with a tsp (teaspoon) of creme fraiche or yoghurt swirled into it.

Serving Suggestions

•   If you have stale bread, brush it with olive oil (or vegetable oil), cut it into chunks and bake in a low oven for 10-15 mins, makes nice croutons that are easy to eat.  Drop them into the soup to soften them up.  (You can do it with fresh bread, but it's nice to reduce waste).
• Breadsticks, rice or corn crackers or tortilla chips or taco shell (especially the one that always breaks into bits in the packet) are good.
• You could add bacon/ lardons (uncooked at the very beginning, or already cooked at the end)  or bits of ham or chicken leftovers. Or broad beans or peas or green beans.  When it's batch cooked, I like to add cooked meats etc to subsequent bowls so it feels like I'm eating something different each time.
• If you have any cooked fish/ smoked haddock etc, add it after the 5 mins boiling at stage 2.
• I like it with buttered toast cut into soldiers so I can dip them into it.
• I also like to initially have the first bowl as chunky soup, then liquidise it, so it's smooth for the next bowl. Gives a bit of variety.

Can I freeze it?  If you use milk as well as stock, then it doesn't freeze as well. If you want to freeze it, use ALL stock (no milk) and just put double the creme fraiche in after you've reheated it. Can be reheated on hob or in microwave.