I’ll be honest. I feel a little giddy just thinking that Fall is around the corner.

I love it. I love Fall. I love freshly-sharpened new pencils, canyons lit up with changing leaves, and crisp air. Oh, and sweaters. Hello. I. love. sweaters. I also love crockpots full of hearty soup.

By July, I’m always missing soup. I know there’s this thing called gazpacho-but I could just never bring myself to even try it. I mean, seriously?! Soup is supposed to be warm. And Fall-ish. Right?! And I just can’t bring myself to voluntarily engage my sweat glands by heating up my kitchen  and myself when it’s already 100-something degrees outside.

But when we discovered this Summer Chowder last year, I changed my mind.

Soup, my friends, can be summer-y.

This chowder tastes like the bounty of summer. It calls for a ridiculous amount of vegetables. You’ll feel healthy just cutting up everything that goes inside. Before I share the recipe, though, let me tell you two things.

1. Don’t you feel guilty about the butter. You practically uproot an entire garden to make this soup.
2. When you see how many vegetables there are compared to the amount of liquid that you add, don’t panic!! The first time I made this, I prematurely started tossing in an extra cup or two of chicken broth. Not necessary. The vegetables sweat enough, that, when combined with the one can of chicken broth and the evaporated milk, there’s plenty of soupy-ness to be had.

This recipe shows what I put in the soup, but you can add more or less of anything. Feel free to add extra ingredients or take anything out that you know you or your family won’t eat. It’s best fresh-it’s not an awesome leftovers soup-mostly because of the zucchini that gets overly soggy when it sits too long.

5.0 from 4 reviews

Summer Chowder

 

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A summer garden in a bowl.

Ingredients

• 1 medium zucchini
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 red onion
• 1 green pepper
• 5 carrots
• 2 large tomatoes
• 1 can (16 oz) corn
• ½ c. butter
• ⅓ c. flour
• 1 T. basil
• 1 T. oregano
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. ground marjoram
• 1 t. black pepper
• 2 t. chicken bouillion
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 can chicken broth

Instructions

1. Dice vegetables.
2. In a large soup pot, melt the butter. Add veggies and cook them for about 15 minutes, stirring veggies and coating them in the butter.
3. In a small bowl, mix the flour, herbs, and spices.
4. Sprinkle flour mixture on top, then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until vegetables reach desired tenderness (at least 15 minutes).

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I served ours with a little bit of parsley on top. You could also add parmesan cheese as a garnish. Or just let those beautiful vegetables speak for themselves.

 Eat up!

Natalie