Vegan Chickpea Corn Chowder

I haven't forgotten. No. But there are a lot of changes going on in our little corner of life, therefore I have been slightly distracted.



First off,  I am leaving my job of close to five years as a paralegal to pursue a new position: professional blogger! Domestic Engineer. No, in all seriousness, I am leaving my job because my sweet baby needs me. Noodle Nose needs me so I'm going to be there for him.



I do have a new little position that I was fortunate enough to stumble upon and I think I'm going to love it. It also works with my schedule with Noodle, so I can be with him which is the reason for leaving work in the first place. So for now I will say that a: it will fit in quite well with this lil' ol' blog and b: it involves a very 'purple smile'... more on that later. Oh, and it's fantastic.



So back to my neglected posts. I will get them up, yes I will. In the meantime I'll start you off with this fantastic soup I made. I'm not a 'chowder' person, persay but it just felt right one evening so I threw some stuff in a pot to see what would happen. And you know what happened? I'll tell you what happened: victory!





Yield: about 5 to 6 servings



Need:

Extra virgin olive oil

1 sweet white onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped (don't go too crazy, it doesn't have to be super fine)

3 carrots, chopped

3-4 (depending on size) stalks celery, chopped

About 8 small red potatoes, cut into about 1/2 inch pieces

About 4 cups vegetable broth

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more, depending

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh cracked pepper, plus more, depending

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (if you do dry, soak & quick cook them ahead of time)

About 2 cups frozen corn, white or yellow

3/4 to 1 cup vegan 1/2 and 1/2... Silk original 'cream' works great

Fresh green onion, chopped, for garnish





Do:

In a stew pot, combine olive oil and onion on med/high heat and saute until almost translucent. About 6 minutes.



To that, add garlic, carrots and celery. Continue to cook another 5 minutes or so then add potatoes, give it a quick stir, reduce heat to medium and add vegetable broth, bay leaves, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.



Let cook covered for about 12-14 minutes until potatoes are bsically soft. While simmering, add the chickpeas and corn, then stir and let come back to a simmer. Once simmering, give it a taste and add additional salt and pepper as needed.



Once flavor is to your liking, turn heat down to low and let cool with the lid off for 2 to 3 minutes then add the soy cream about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring continuously.



Now you are ready to serve!



Serve:

Ladle into a bowl, top with some fresh chopped green onion, for color and fresh flavor and serve alongside fresh bread, La Panzanella crackers or even better... your own homemade crackers!



So hearty, filling and delicious. You get your protein from the chickpeas, veg from the veg, decadence from the cream. It's all there and so so good.





Enjoy!



Chickpeas