Fingerling Potato & Corn Chowder for Souper (Soup, Salad, & Sammie) Sundays (+ 5 Favorite Potato Dishes)

Fresh foods are still plentiful at the stores around me, while prepared and frozen foods are hit or miss. That could certainly change, so I wanted to make the most of it and use up some multi-colored fingerling potatoes, fresh tarragon and fennel that were starting to look slightly limp. I also wanted chowder because chowder is always a good idea. To make it a vegan chowder I used coconut milk for my base, thickening it with cornstarch.

You can make chowder with any vegetables you have on hand--the recipe below is what I used.

Fingerling Potato & Corn Chowder
By Deb, Kahaki Kitchen
(Makes 6 Servings) 

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped (I used 1 orange carrot/1 parsnip)
3 medium leeks, light green and white parts only, washed well and sliced
2 medium fennel bulbs, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp dried tarragon or 1 Tbsp fresh, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 lbs fingerling potatoes, well scrubbed and sliced/chopped into 1-inch pieces
5 cups broth (I used non-chicken bouillon cubes)
2 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp cold water 
1 can coconut milk
2 cups fresh or frozen corn
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
fresh tarragon to serve (optional)  

Heat olive in in a large soup pot over medium and add onion, carrots, leeks and fennel. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes until veggies soften slightly and onions turn translucent. Add garlic, celery seed, tarragon and bay leaf and cook another 2 minutes. 

Add potatoes and broth and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes and veggies are just tender. Mix the cornstarch with cold water until it is smooth with no lumps. Add it, and the coconut milk to the soup, along with the corn and simmer for another 5-7 minutes, until corn is warmed through and chowder has thickened.

Taste and add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve with fresh tarragon on top if desired.

Notes/Results: Rich, creamy and satisfying, chowder always makes me happy. I like the difference in taste and texture of the three colors of potatoes and the anise flavor of the tarragon and fennel. If you don't want to use cornstarch, you could make a roux or mash up some of the potatoes to thicken the soup. This will be excellent for lunches this week--whether I end up at home or at the office. I'll happily make it again.

While we are on the subject of potatoes (my love language), here is a round up of five tasty potato dishes from some of our 19 featured chefs at I Heart Cooking Clubs for this week's Hot Potato! theme:

Ruth Reichl's Crisp Lemon Baby Potatoes:

Tessa Kiros: Sage & Rosemary Mashed Potatoes:

Mark Bittman's Spanish Tortilla:

Diana Henry's Cabbage (Kale) and Leek Colcannon:

Nigel Slater's Goat Cheese Bubble & Squeak:

I could post favorite potato recipes for days but I'll stop here and let's see who is in the Souper Sundays kitchen this week:

Debra of Eliot's Eats brought Carrot Salad with Olives saying, "This week, I present Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden  by Jeanne Kelley. ... I’ve made a few recipes, but the most recent one was a riff on a carrot salad. We had company here for lunch and I needed something quick and easy with ingredients I had on hand. (I certainly wasn’t running back to the grocery store with the hoarders!)"

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor advises "If you are staying home, make soup!" and offered up Nigella's Tortilla Soup saying, "I wanted to participate with the cooking club, Deb’s Souper Sunday and British Isles Friday so I thought, why not make a Nigella Lawson recipe and tweek the ingredients from her quesadillas. This is basically her quesadilla recipe dumped into a pot and made into soup. Nigella is one of my favorite British chefs and I'm sure I'll be revisiting her cookbooks soon."

Judee of Gluten Free A - Z Blog brought her Green & Healthy Spinach Soup and said, "Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, this beautiful spinach soup recipe is quick, green and healthy. It's kind of like a homemade V-8 shake. When you read the ingredients, you may think it sounds weird (I did), but I assure you it tastes absolutely delicious despite mixing orange juice and vegetables. The question is- "Is this a soup, shake or a smoothie?"

Thank you to Debra, Tina and Judee for joining me this week!

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week--stay safe and well!