Comfort Food: Corn Chowder

When I was growing up, one of my mom's (and dad's) favorite weeknight dinners when things were hectic was corn chowder. It was quick to make, had some good vegetables in it, and easily adaptable. For me, it's become one of my favorite comfort foods. I'm posting the basic recipe here, though it's well-suited to extra add-ins. It also is easy to double, for yummy leftovers or for a crowd.

Ingredients

1 can cream of potato soup

1 can of milk (whole milk or 2% work best)

1 can Niblets (or otherwise, about 1-1.5 cups cooked corn)

Butter (or oil) for sautee

2-3 stalks celery, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, diced

salt and pepper to taste

other ingredients as desired

Directions

Sautee the onions, celery and garlic for a few minutes, until they start to sweat a bit. Add the corn (and anything else you want to add, see note) and any seasonings you may want to add (I usually add Old Bay seasoning). Sautee the mixture until the corn has a little color.

Move the mixture to a saucepan and add the potato soup and milk. Mix well, bring it to a light simmer, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, serve with chopped scallions.

Without extra mix-ins, the base recipe creates a chunky soup that is pretty hearty. If you add a lot of other items, you may want to add more cream of potato and milk. Other mix-ins include leftover vegetables (diced), cooked chicken (diced), cooked sausage, bacon, lima beans, or anything else you have leftover. When I make it, I like the corn to get a little brown, as it makes things a bit tastier. During the summer corn season, I've also grilled corn and used that instead of Niblets (or frozen corn), it gives the chowder a bit of something extra. If you have any other ideas of items to mix into the chowder, let me know!