Creamy chowder blended with sweet summer corn and hearty potatoes for a rich texture, with fresh zucchini, herbs, garlic, and bacon. Made in the Instant Pot for the ultimate quick and healthy comfort food!
Life update: I just completed my fourth week and first full block of medical school at the University of Florida… Can I get a GO GATORS, please? The upperclassmen were spot-on when they said the days are long but the weeks (and months and years) fly by. Difficult? Yes. Exhausting? Yes. Enlightening and inspiring and 1000% worth it? Also yes. I’ve learned more than I have in any four weeks of my life, including a tremendous mass of things I don’t know and never knew I didn’t know. In fact, I feel like I know less now than I ever have. But that’s just something I get to roll with for the rest of my life.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just as importantly, I have become part of this wildly unique family with some of the most inspirational, talented, wholehearted humans I’ve ever met. The next few years are full of unknowns, but I can be pretty confident that boredom won’t be something I’ll have to deal with.
My New Toy
In other news…
I’m now a proud owner of an Instant Pot! (Thanks Aunt BA and Uncle Curt 😉 ) I’m still experimenting to figure out which recipes are most efficient for adapting to the pressure cooking to make the most out of it…so stay tuned for more reports to come.
But at least I can tell you for sure now that this creamy corn and potato chowder works magnificently in the Instant Pot. Compared to my original stovetop version of this recipe, the Instant Pot reduces the cooking time dramatically, reduces the overall time when accounting for time for pressure to build (which can take a bit), doesn’t require switching between a bunch of different pans (which can be annoying in some recipes using a special appliance), cooks everything evenly and to the optimal texture, and surprisingly maximizes the flavor as if it had been simmering all day.
The Chowder of Your Dreams
The blog post for this corn chowder victory is looooong overdue. But even though I’m running late (perpetually), you still have time to stock up on late-summer corn and zucchini before the season ends…and maybe make and freeze a couple vats of soup for the fall while you’re at it. Because this is the kind of comfort food you need on-hand.
It has all the thickness and creaminess of a rich, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal. But so much of the velvety consistency comes from blending the starchy veggies, so the soup is surprisingly light. Just a little half & half is all we need to bring the creaminess over the top. Plus, by blending just about half the soup and adding the zucchini after blending, we’re left with big hearty hunks of veggies too.
And it’s not just the texture–the flavor is outrageous. You get the perfect dose of sweetness from the corn, plus lots of love from garlic, fresh thyme, smoky bacon, and chives.
If you want to go all-out with the meal, try pairing the chowder with a thin and toasty quesadilla for dipping. Pictured is Monterey jack cheese, basil pesto, and sautéed spinach on a whole wheat tortilla, folded and toasted in a skillet until browned on both sides. Holy wow please do it.
- 2 slices turkey bacon (or bacon of choice)
- 1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 large carrot, chopped
- 2 tsp white wine
- 175g (1 cup) golden baby potatoes, roughly chopped
- 2/3 cup (1 ear, 87g) fresh sweet corn
- 1.75 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
- 3/4 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 tsp dried chives (opt)
- 1/3 cup half & half
- 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 large zucchini, sliced and halved
- squeeze fresh lemon juice
- fresh chives (for topping, opt)
- Turn the Instant Pot to the sauté setting. When hot, add the bacon and cook on both sides until browned. Remove from the pot. When cool, roughly tear or chop.
- Still on sauté mode, add the onion, garlic, carrot, and wine, stirring to scrape up browned bits. Cook 2-3 minutes, adding a splash of broth as needed to prevent sticking.
- Stir in the potatoes, corn, broth, thyme, salt, pepper, and dried chives.
- Place the lid on and set it to the closed position; place the steam valve in the sealing position. Set the Instant Pot to manual, high pressure, for 11 minutes.
- When the cooking time is finished, allow the pressure to naturally release (just leave it there) for 5 minutes. Then turn the steam valve to the venting position to finish releasing the pressure.
- Transfer half of the soup to a high-power blender and blend until smooth. Return to the pot.
- In a measuring cup, whisk 1/3 cup half & half with 1/2 tsp cornstarch (for added thickness if desired). Then stir into the pot with the soup. Let it rest about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pan-sear the zucchini in a little olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper, until tender. Add zucchini to the soup along with a splash of lemon juice. Stir in the bacon pieces.
- Divide into bowls and top with fresh chives.
- The chowder is paired here with a spinach pesto quesadilla (Monterey jack cheese, sautéed spinach, basil pesto, whole grain tortilla, toasted on the stove-top until browned on each side).
- For a stovetop version of the chowder, see my post "Light and Creamy Summer Corn Chowder."
