Chipotle corn chowder

I wanted to make chipotle corn chowder for lunch in my building, but couldn't find the recipe I had before (ha, if I had one! I may have made it up to begin with.) In my search, I found this fantastic one from Kait's Plate. What makes it so fantastic? Sweet potatoes! They are so good and full of nutrients and just a lot more fun than regular potatoes. What's not to like?? It is filling because of the heartiness of the potatoes, a little bit creamy because of the cream and butter, and has a good flavor. I almost always adjust spices in recipes, but all I did here was add a bit of cumin, though it honestly didn't need it. Next time I may use an immersion blender on it for a few seconds, just to give it a little more thick stuff holding it together.

I admit that this was not AT ALL quick when making about 70 servings. Yep, we used 32 pounds of sweet potatoes. Do you realize how long those take to peel? And chop?? To be perfectly honest, I may not have felt so ambitious if I had known. But now that it's done, I am happy. Because it was quite tasty. Spicy enough to deserve the name, but mild enough that nobody got a runny nose or thought it was too hot. A couple of "not soup people" even went back for seconds. And it was extra wonderful because dinner turned out to be so.... sparse. I was one of the last ones in line, so several things were out by the time I got there and I ended up with asparagus and zucchini in tomato juice. Hmmm... Luckily I know how to find other food :)

I made two versions: one veggie, one chicken. For the veggie one, I used vegetable stock to make it truly vegetarian. If I were to make it just for myself, I'd use chicken stock and then just not put in chicken. That's why they call me a 'fake vegetarian' around here. For the chicken one, we had 10 lbs of chicken, so for a single recipe that would be... 2.5 lbs. It was a lot, though, far too much I think, so I'd actually suggest 1.5 lbs, max.

Chipotle corn chowder
Serves: 8 Cook time: 40 minutes (that's quite a guess!)

3 tbsp. butter
3-4 lb sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large onion, diced
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 quart chicken stock
½ lb. frozen corn kernels
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
5 thyme sprigs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Cilantro

- Heat butter in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add sweet potatoes and onion and cook 5 minutes.
- Add flour and stir into the onion and sweet potato.
- Gradually add chicken stock while stirring.
- Add corn, chipotle peppers, cream, and thyme and bring to a simmer.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer about 10-15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender but not falling apart.
- Remove from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Garnish with cilantro (or avocado or tortilla chips, if you like).

Nutrition info (1/8 of veg recipe, no toppings): Fat - 7.9g Cal - 269 Carbs - 46 Protein - 5.5g