This recipe for corn chowder without cream is everything you’re looking for in a comforting soup, without the extra calories of heavy cream or half and half.
Everyone I have served this corn chowder to has absolutely loved it.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience at no additional cost to you.
It’s one of the few soups/chowders that my bachelor son makes. In fact, he told me I should change the ratio of ingredients in the recipe in order to use an entire bag of Trader Joe’s corn. He means business, ha ha!
How to Make a Low Fat, Creamy Chowder
I’m sure your first question is, “how can a chowder be creamy without cream?”
This thick and creamy bowl of deliciousness doesn’t have one drop of cream in it. Truthfully, that’s rare for me, and I’m not saying you couldn’t add some cream, however, you really won’t need to. I based this on my clam chowder recipe which is also rich and creamy, without added cream. A bit of flour and potatoes and one little trick, create the magic that happens in this recipe.
Once you know this technique, you can apply it to many other soups and chowders, it’s fabulous!
How to Thicken a Soup or Chowder Without Adding Cream
- It’s really simple to thicken a chowder or soup without adding any cream or half and half. Just blend a percentage of the soup and add it back in once it’s smooth. Want a thinner soup? Don’t blend too much of the pot. If you’d like a thicker chowder, blend a larger percentage; it’s that simple!
- Another method is to add potatoes (or more potatoes).
- Last, but not least, make a roux, or just add some flour, which is another method I use in this recipe for corn chowder.
Tip: just remember if you’re adding meat, barley or rice, for example, don’t add them until you’ve blended the rest of the ingredients. These hard grains and some ingredients, like meat, won’t purée like vegetables. This red lentil soup (with barley) is a good example.
Can You Freeze Corn Chowder?
Absolutely yes, corn chowder freezes perfectly, and reheats beautifully. You’ll never know this chowder was frozen.
Corn Chowder Recipe without Cream
Recipe created by Christina Conte Makes 5 Servings
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Ingredients:
- good quality butter
- extra virgin olive oil
- onion
- celery stalks
- all purpose flour
- chicken or vegetable stock
- milk
- potatoes
- fresh or frozen corn, preferably organic (leftover works, too)
- Kosher or sea salt
- freshly ground pepper
Make the Base
Heat the butter and oil in a large pot. Add the onion and celery and sauté over medium high heat for about 7 minutes, before adding the flour.
Stir vigorously so that the flour cooks, but doesn’t brown, for about 4 minutes. Begin adding the stock a little at a time, while continuing to stir until all the liquid has been added.
Add the Remaining Ingredients
Next, add the milk and stir well. Add the diced potatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt, and allow to simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring often, before adding the corn.
Simmer for an additional 8 to 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. Now, for the trick which thickens and improves the overall flavor of this corn chowder.
Blend Some of the Corn Chowder
Remove about a cup or so of the soup and use an immersion blender to puree it. Return it to the pot and stir well. If it’s not thick enough, puree a little more.
Taste, adding salt if necessary and some black pepper. Serve corn chowder piping hot. I love to serve it with some parsnip scones slathered in a good salted butter!
You could truly adapt this recipe for corn chowder to make any sort of creamy chowder, or you could just add your choice of ingredients to make it your own version. If you do, drop me a line below and let me know what you did and how you liked it!
Don’t miss another recipe or travel post, sign up for my free subscription.
Recipe for Corn Chowder without Cream
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp butter (good quality)
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion (diced)
- 2 celery stalks (chopped)
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 2 potatoes (medium to large, diced into bite sized pieces)
- 2 cups corn (fresh or frozen, preferably organic-leftover works)
- ⅛ tsp Kosher salt (or sea salt)
- ⅛ tsp pepper (freshly ground)
Instructions
- Heat the butter and oil in a large pot. Add the onion and celery and sauté over medium high heat for about 7 minutes, before adding the flour.
- Stir vigorously so that the flour cooks, but doesn’t brown, for about 4 minutes. Begin adding the stock a little at a time, while continuing to stir until all the liquid has been added.
- Then add the milk and stir well. Next, add the diced potatoes and 1 teaspoon of salt, and allow to simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring often, before adding the corn.
- Simmer for an additional 8 to 10 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked.
- Now for the trick to thicken and improve the overall flavor of this chowder: puree about a cup or so and return to the pot.
- Taste, adding salt if necessary and some black pepper. Serve hot.
Notes
Nutrition
Christina’s Cucina is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Christina,
Thanks for sharing your recipe. Just had to report that I made your chowder today for lunch and it was so good!!! Wish I had doubled the recipe. I’ll be making more soon. Also appreciated your tip on how to thicken it. =)
That’s wonderful, Sue! So happy to hear that you loved it! :) Christina
We had a cold front come through and it is freezing! I gave your recipe a try and adapted with what I had on hand! Frozen onions, celery, and peppers mix with seasoning, canned diced potatoes, and a little bit of cheese! Turned out amazing! Thanks for helping a mama out to keep us all toasty warm with full bellies!
That’s lovely to hear, Emily! Thanks so much for letting me know and I hope the weather warms up a bit for you! :)
Wow! I just made this using leftover mashed potatoes and roasted corn from yesterdays dinner. I only had nonfat milk so I used a little of that and an 8oz. cup of sour cream I had on hand. It came out great!
Way to improvise!! Good for you, Kris! Glad you liked it! :)
This looks absolutely delicious. I love chowder so this is right up my alley.
Thanks Kim! You’d love it!
This corn chowder looks so good! So perfect for this time of year!
It is really a perfect autumn dish, Angie!
I love chowders but not all the fat so I’m all over this!
Yes! :)
LOL, I love the title – sly indeed! :) Pureeing part of the soup is a great trick. And I’m with you – I’m all for cream but it is nice to have a lower cal option for those rare occasions when the cream isn’t “totally” necessary! :) Great recipe!
Thanks, Kimberly! Yes, I can do without the cream, anyone can! haha!
Just made this recipe this morning and enjoying for lunch with some warm bread – it’s so very good especially on a dreary cool day! Thanks for another great recipe.
Oh goodness, I missed this, Tara! Thank you so much for letting me know you enjoyed it! I cannot WAIT for it to cool off here (it’s been over 100F 3 days in a row) so I can make soups like this one, again! I actually spy temps in the 70s and rain in our 10 day forecast! Yippee! Thanks again!! CC
I have made this many times because it’s so delicious, but today I added a can of Cannellini Beans and cooked chicken that I had, and it’s really good too!
Cool! Thanks, Tara!