Corn Chowder

It's kind of cool and cloudy today, so I thought soup would be a nice lunch. (My boyfriend is enjoying the leftover chili today). I found this recipe searching the web, called quinoa corn chowder, on fatfreevegan.com. I'm out of quinoa (gotta add that to the grocery list!), so I just made corn chowder.

2 cups vegetable broth
1 large potato, cubed
2 Tbsp. carrot, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 1/2 cups corn
1 cup plain soymilk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup parsley, chopped

Simmer potato, carrot and onion until tender (about 15 minutes). Add corn. Bring back to boil and simmer another 5 minutes. Add soymilk. Bring just to boil. Season to taste. Garnish with parsley.

Now, I like my corn chowder to be more of a puree than a broth and veggie soup, so I scooped up about 2 cups worth of the soup and stuck it in the blender on low, then added the rough puree back into the pot. The soup was then nice and thick! I also added a fair amount of fresh ground pepper, and garnished with grated carrot as well as the parsley.

Upon tasting, I thought it was a bit bland, so i added a lot more salt and pepper into my bowl. If I made this again, I'd sautee the onion and celery, add some garlic, then deglaze with the veggie broth and add the potatoes and carrots. I might add some red pepper too.

I also had another one of those corn muffins, with a bit of earth balance vegan margarine, and some chocolate soy milk.

WW points on core: 2.5 for the soymilk and .5 for the earth balance. 3 pts total.

edit: Note to self: check nutritional info on packages- my chocolate soymilk, from soy slender, is sweetened with splenda, so it's only 1 pt for 8 oz, not 2.5 pts! :-)