Keep Me Warm

For warm weather lovers like me, it can be hard to admit Summer is over, but this year in Seattle the suddenly low temperatures make it all too real. It feels like Winter already!

People around here often turn to a seafood chowder. Being vegetarian, to keep me warm I created this Potato Corn Chowder with an Open-Face Grilled Cheese Sandwich. It's the end of warm weather, but I am not giving up yet on warm weather ingredients like corn, chives, and avocado. And, my husband loves corn ... so any corn dish I come up with, I'll always have one happy customer :)

For the Potato Corn Chowder I used:
1 tbsn olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 big clove garlic, finely chopped
2 cans sweet corn, rinsed (if you have fresh sweet corn, then use that over cans any day!)
1 small red potato, boiled, peeled, and cubed
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
a pinch of cayenne
1/2 cup water
a splash of cream, which could also be half & half or a thick milk substitute
blue tortillas chips, avocado cubed, & my home grown garlic chives to garnish

Vegan Tip: Skip the milk/cream & use cans of cream style corn instead of plain corn (they are usually dairy-free)

My method for the Potato Corn Chowder:
1. On medium heat, cook the onions and garlic in oil until soft & translucent.
2. Add the corn, salt, and pepper to the water, and bring it to a boil.
3. Take it off the stove & purée half of it. I used a Braun handheld blender to purée some of the mixture as I had whole kernels of corn. You could use cans of cream style corn and skip the purée.
4. Lower the heat, add the potato, cream, and let it simmer for 10 min.
5. It should become nice and thick, let it cook until it does.
6. Once done, serve it hot in a bowl and top it with a pinch of cayenne, a tortilla chip, cubed avocado, and chives. See the photos above and below :)


For the Open-Face Grilled Cheese Sandwich I used:
1 slice of whole grain bread
1 slice of Swiss cheese
5-6 sweet cherry or grape tomatoes halved
a pinch each of salt & freshly ground pepper

My method for the Open-Face Grilled Cheese Sandwich:
1. Set your oven to broil, so you can do more than one at a time.
2. Butter the slice of your whole grain bread.
3. Place the tomatoes on it.
4. Top it with a slice of Swiss cheese, so you can see the pretty tomato color through the holes :)
5. Sprinkle some salt & freshly ground pepper.
6. Broil for 3-5 min until the cheese is nicely melted and the bread edges are toasted.
7. Serve with a hot Potato Corn Chowder and enjoy some warm Autumn comfort food!