Corn and Carrot Chowder

I fell asleep reading bon appetit the other night (it happens...) and the last recipe I remember reading was for corn and crab chowder. So it was no wonder that I woke up this morning with an inextinguishable craving for corn soup. And, after about five hours of Christmas shopping in crowded stores (you haven't truly experienced 'crowded' until you've tried to visit the stores in Rockefeller center at Christmastime), I felt like I deserved something extra delicious.

My soups are basically salads in a bowl. I figure, you don't have to worry about losing vitamins through boiling vegetables if you're eating the water that they boil in (i.e., soup). Of course, I'm not a nutritionist, so I could be flat out wrong. But until someone proves otherwise, I think veggie soups are pretty darn healthy. You could finish this with some cream, if you wanted a more authentic 'chowder' recipe.  But I thought it was great with just veggies!

Corn and Carrot Chowder

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound bag of carrots, peeled and diced

1 small onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, diced

2 tsp olive oil

2 cups corn kernels (I used frozen, no need to defrost)

4 cups vegetable stock

2 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

Pinch of saffron

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large saucepan, saute onion and garlic in olive oil.

2. Add vegetable stock, corn, carrots, salt, paprika and saffron. Simmer 20 minutes, covered.

3. Strain soup into a large serving bowl. Reserve 1/2 cup of solids. Place remaining solids into food processor and puree until smooth.

4. Add puree and reserved solids back into broth, and mix until well incorporated. Serve.

Serves 4.