Wrapping your chilly hands around a hot bowl of this vegan corn chowder is like holding sunshine. The brilliant yellow color excites your eyes as your spoon dips into this creamy, nutrient-packed soup speckled with little bits of corn, potatoes, bell pepper, onion, and celery. Your first bite begins to warm you from the inside out. Soup perfection.
This vegan corn chowder recipe comes from my cookbook, The Friendly Vegan Cookbook. While it’s an absolute fall favorite, it can be enjoyed any time of year, as it comes together perfectly with frozen corn.
We made this chowder flavorful by using onion, garlic, jalapeño, and flavorful vegetable broth, and we made it creamy using plant-based milk and pureed potatoes. Unlike most corn chowder recipes, our calls for zero cream or butter, making this recipe extra healthy while still being just as delicious.
Whenever a recipe calls for vegetable broth, you have two options. You can add in pre-made vegetable broth (either store-bought or homemade). Or, you can add in that same amount of water plus vegetable bouillon.
I’m a big fan of using bouillon and have transitioned away from pre-made vegetable broth almost entirely. Let me explain why.
Any soup broth that you buy at the store will come housed in a container, usually a plastic or aseptic container, which is usually not even recyclable. That’s a lot of single-use waste for something that’s 95% water. And that’s where the beauty of bouillon comes in.
Bouillon is essentially condensed soup stock without the water. You can find it in little individually wrapped cubes (like this) or in glass jars (like this). Better Than Bouillon is my personal favorite.
Just add the bouillon to boiling water and voila! You’ve got vegetable broth that works perfectly with any recipe. And save those glass Better Than Bouillon jars—you can reuse them for leftover sauces, dry spices, homemade baby food, and more!
You can use any type of corn in this recipe—fresh corn, canned corn, or frozen corn kernels! We personally like to use frozen corn because it’s already removed from the cob and is super-easy to toss in. Plus, frozen produce is usually picked, harvested, prepared, and frozen at the peak point of ripeness, creating very highest quality produce that’s perfect to cook with.
I’ll be honest, I rarely have leftovers when I make this chowder because my family goes to town when we make this. But when we don’t devour every last bite, it stores beautifully. This vegan chowder recipe is a great one to save—either in the fridge to enjoy throughout the week, or in the freezer to enjoy in the future.
To freeze your leftovers, just ladle portions into glass containers (I love using single-serving containers), secure the lids, and pop them in the freezer. When you’re ready to enjoy more soup, just allow them to thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating them in the microwave the next day. You can also microwave them from their frozen state, but it will take longer and require some mixing along the way.
Don’t miss our round-up of the best vegan soup recipes from all around the web! Here are a few of our top favorites:
This is just one of our 100 perfected vegan recipes that you’ll find in my new book, The Friendly Vegan Cookbook! I wrote this cookbook with Toni Okamoto, founder of Plant-Based on a Budget, to be the ultimate vegan cookbook for anyone who wants to integrate more plant-based meals into their life, and find rigorously tested versions of favorite dishes. I hope to continue supporting you in your kitchen through this book!
By the way…if you do get this cookbook, this corn chowder pairs beautifully with our vegan cornbread recipe from The Friendly Vegan Cookbook!
Hungry for more corn-inspired dishes? Check out these delicious recipes!
This creamy vegan corn chowder recipe is from The Friendly Vegan Cookbook by Michelle Cehn and Toni Okamoto. Photos by Zhoro Apostolov. Published with permission from BenBella Books, 2020, all rights reserved. Please note that this article contains affiliate links.
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This sounds like a good and healthy recipe for vegan corn chowder! It looks good to have a recipe that uses plant-based milk and pureed potatoes, rather than relying on cream or butter, dairy sucks. I like vegan in my world.
Thank you for sharing these delicious and creative recipes! I love the idea of using bouillon instead of store-bought vegetable broth to reduce waste, and I can’t wait to try the tofu chickpea carrot burgers and the vegan corn chowder. The chocolate chip goddamn banana bread also sounds like a delicious and unique twist on a classic favorite. I appreciate the time and effort you put into creating and sharing these recipes, and I look forward to trying them out in my own kitchen. Thank you!
I’m always looking for vegan recipes and this one is delicious!
This is exactly how I love my corn soup. Creamy and chunky! This will be a new favorite this time of year. It warms you right up!
super creamy but with texture and great mouthfeel!
Super creamy and so flavorful! It’s a hit at the dinner table for sure.
this corn choder is soooo easy and so delicious! love it!
Fabulous! I really loved all the amazing flavors melting with the sweetness of corn! Thank you!
That looks so delicious. Warming, creamy and perfect for cold days. I will make this recipe for sure.
This vegan corn chowder was amazing! So easy and delicious!
my first vegan chowder and I loved it….and so did my family!
This looks absolutely delightful! I love how simple this recipe is! YUM!
I am SO in love with corn chowder! I seriously love most soups, but the combination of the creamy texture, sweet corn and super soft potatoes of this chowder makes me swoon! I could eat this every single night…and I just might!
I’m so in love with this creamy, sweet, and salty soup! It’s a family favorite 🙂 I add a few drops of tabasco to give it a little kick and it’s peeeeerfect! Thank you Michelle and Toni for introducing me to this amazing chowder!
Amazing!
Yum! I cannot wait to make this!!!
So yummy!
Love making this recipe, so easy and comforting!
This is one of my favorite vegan soup recipes to make in the fall! I’ve already made this a few times this season 🙂 If I have extra frozen corn, I toss it in before I store my leftovers in the fridge!