VeganMoFo Day 3 - Potato Chowder

Another favorite from the McDougall Made Irresistable DVD. Only a handful of ingredients, and if you let the potatoes defrost first, ready in just a few minutes.

Potato Chowder

This is always a favorite at the McDougall Program and it is quick and easy to make as well. Buy bags of frozen, chopped hash brown potatoes (with no added oils) for really easy preparation of this delicious soup

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4-6

4 cups vegetable broth
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 leek, white and light green part, sliced
6 cups frozen chopped hash brown potatoes
2 cups soy or rice milk
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
2 tablespoons dried chives
dash liquid smoke

Place 1/2 cup of the broth in a large soup pot with the onion, celery and leeks. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, until softened. 

Add the remaining broth and the potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes. 

Using an immersion blender, process the soup while still in the pot. (Unless you are using a nonstick pan, then place the soup in a blender jar and process until fairly smooth. Return to pan.) 

Add the remaining ingredients and heat through, about 5 minutes.

My changes:

Instead of using fresh leeks I used a half cup of freeze-dried ones from Harmony House. I don't use them very often so the dried ones made the most sense. In the 6 or so months since I bought this through Amazon, this is only the second time I've used them.

And that's the only change I made.

This is a very flavorful soup, and you can change up that flavor by using different broths with it. A homemade broth is certainly going to taste different than boxed broth from Pacific, which tastes different that boxed broth from Kitchen Basics which tastes different than boxed broth from Swanson, etc. And each batch of homemade broth tastes different, too, depending on which vegetables you used for that particular potful.