Thanks so much to Garden Lites® for generously sponsoring today’s recipe. Your whole family will love this hearty, easy Vegetarian Corn Chowder for dinner, and it pairs perfectly with their Superfood Veggie Cakes!
It’s soup season, right? That’s what the Internet tells me, but it is so dang hot in San Francisco this time of year! I’m hoping it feels like Fall where you are because then I know you will be excited to try this Vegetarian Corn Chowder recipe. This rich, creamy soup is quite easy to make, and it has added protein thanks to cottage cheese, milk, and shredded cheese.
Wait, did you just turn up your nose when I said cottage cheese? I saw that, but don’t worry. You won’t even know it’s in the soup! It adds almost 30 grams of protein to the recipe plus richness without a lot of fat, so I promise you’ll be happy it’s in there.
Besides corn, this soup is kind of lacking in the vegetable department. That’s where the side dish comes in. Check out these Garden Lites Superfood Veggie Cakes! I flippin’ love these little things, and I know you will too. You buy them in the freezer section at the grocery store and can pop them in the microwave or oven when you’re ready for a quick, wholesome snack or side dish. All of their products have vegetables as one of the first three ingredients, so they are an easy and delicious way to eat more veggies!
One thing I love about the veggie cakes, besides that they taste really great, is that they are gluten free. Eating soup has been a lot less fun since I had to give up wheat because I am a major dunker. The main reason I liked to eat soup was to dunk bread in it, but now I can’t! These savory veggie cakes are a perfect substitute for bread to enjoy with your soups and stews, and they are way better for you!
This corn chowder is quick and easy to prepare, but there is one extra step that does add a little extra work and dishes: Blending. To get the rich texture seen here, you need to blend the soup before serving. You can do the blending with a stick blender in the pot, but I must warn you to be very careful if you take this route. The soup is hot, and my stick blender usually causes a lot of splatter. I don’t want you to get burned or cause a kitchen disaster and blame me!
The easiest route is to pour the soup into a standard blender to puree. If you make the soup ahead of time, you can store it in the refrigerator before blending. Then, you can pour it into the blender while it’s cold, pulse a few times until it’s smooth, and pour it into a pot to heat. That way you aren’t transferring hot soup around multiple times between the pot, blender, and serving bowls. If you do choose to blend it while it’s hot, just please be careful :)
Before I get to the recipe, I have one other thing to tell you: Garden Lites offers more than veggie cakes! They also have chocolate muffins, blueberry oat muffins, and soon will release waffles. Each of their products is loaded with vegetable goodness, which I love. It’s hard to get my kids to eat enough vegetables, and I forget to get enough in my own diet. These delicious, wholesome treats are going to be regulars in my freezer!
To find Garden Lites in your area, click here to check their store locator. Also visit them on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or Instagram for inspiration and offers. I hope you enjoy their products as much as we do :)
Your whole family will love this Vegetarian Corn Chowder! It’s an easy dinner recipe just right for busy nights.
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 tablespoons butter (I chose salted butter.)
- 1/2 sweet onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic crushed or minced
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
- 16 ounces frozen whole kernel corn
- 2 cups milk (2% or whole for best results)
- 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded Mexican blend or cheddar cheese
- salt and hot sauce to taste
Instructions
Melt butter in a medium dutch oven or stock pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, and cook until soft and translucent (about 5 minutes). Stir in garlic, and cook a minute longer.
Pour in broth, Cajun seasoning, and corn. Bring to a low boil.
Very carefully pour or ladle broth mixture into a blender. Add milk, cottage cheese, and shredded cheese. Pulse until your desired smoothness is achieved.
Pour blended soup back into pot, and bring back to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer, stirring often, at least five minutes to ensure cheese is melted and soup is heated thoroughly. Season with salt and hot sauce to taste.
Serve with Garden Lites Superfood Veggie Cakes! (You can bake them according to package directions in your oven or toaster oven while you make your soup.)
- Author: Andi
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 20
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Garden Lites. The opinions and text are all mine.
