Cheesy and Easy, this vegetable chowder is thick and creamy and loaded with all kinds of vegetables. Use vegetable bullion to make it your new favorite vegetarian soup recipe!
Soup is our favorite dinner to warm us up on a cold winter night. Serve it with our Easy Cheese Stuffed Garlic Rolls or alongside our favorite Instant Pot Lasagna. It is a great main dish or compliment to your favorite dinner recipe.
Easy Vegetable Chowder Recipe
The weather has been super cold and my family is always looking for something to warm them up. This vegetable chowder has been warming us up from the inside out all winter long!
I haven’t made a lot of soups, which is funny, because I absolutely love soup. For some reason, it has been a little bit of a sticking point for me. I just haven’t taken the plunge into soups yet.
However, this past summer my son decided he was going to try being a vegetarian. Well, this has been difficult for me when meal planning because we are meat eaters.
So I have been on the hunt for great recipes for him and I thought that I would try making a vegetable soup recipe for him. How hard would that be, right?
Vegetarian Vegetable Chowder
Well, here is the thing, so many vegetable soup recipes still have a chicken base. He loves the taste of the chicken but won’t eat it.
He doesn’t love the vegetable bases, funny seeing that he is a vegetarian. So I found a non-chicken chicken bouillon and used that! Thank goodness!
You can use a regular chicken bouillon if you don’t care about it being vegetarian. However, if you are looking for a true vegetarian soup you will want to use either vegetable bouillon or a non-chicken bouillon. Not to worry, they will all be delicious!
All Things Chowder
I love all types of chowders and thick and creamy soups, but they can be so high in calories, fats, and carbohydrates. This one is not, however. We use milk and flour to make it rather than cream.
What I love about this soup recipe is my kids don’t even know how many or what type of vegetables they are eating. If you asked my kids they would say that they don’t like half of the vegetables that are in here, but they devour it and don’t even realize how good it is for them! There are 5 cups of vegetables in this soup, it is a veggie powerhouse!
Easy Prep
I actually let my food processor do all of the hard work. I just throw my celery, cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli in there and let it chop them up. I like my veggies chopped pretty finely, but feel free to leave them chunkier if you prefer.
Then, all you need to do is chop up the red pepper and onion (or you can put this in your food processor too, but you want to chop them separately from the other vegetables because you are adding them at different times!
How to make Creamy Vegetable Chowder
Start by placing your butter in either a large pot, dutch oven or kettle and melting it over medium heat. Add in the onion and pepper and saute them until the vegetables are tender.
Add in the remaining vegetables, water, and bouillon and stir them together. Bring to a boil, add in the salt and pepper to taste, cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for 20 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine the flour and milk until it is nice and smooth. Pour into the soup and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let cook and stir for about 2-3 minutes.
Stir in the cheese until it is melted. Serve and enjoy!
Additions to Vegetable Chowder
The best thing about this vegetable soup recipe is that you can really use whatever you have in the house. You don’t need to make a special trip to the grocery. Some of our favorite additions are:
- Green Pepper
- Yellow Pepper
- Green Beans
- Beans
- Mushrooms
- Potatoes
- Corn
- Bacon (if you don’t want it vegetarian)
Also, if you are looking for a non-vegetarian dish, you can add boneless skinless chicken breast cut into small pieces. This gives it some great protein if you are looking to make it into a heartier dish!
How long can you keep chowder in the refrigerator
Properly stored, your vegetable chowder can be kept for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
Easy Vegetable Chowder
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup onion chopped
- ½ cup red bell pepper chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 1 cup carrots chopped
- 1 cup cauliflower chopped
- 1 cup broccoli chopped
- 4 cups water
- 3-4 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base or 3 bouillon cubes
- ½ cup flour
- 1 ½ cups milk
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- In a large pot, dutch oven or kettle melt the butter over medium-high heat.
- Saute the onion and pepper until tender
- Add all of the remaining vegetables, water and bouillon and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper.
- Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour and milk until smooth and the chunks are gone.
- Pour into the pot and stir. Bring the soup back to a boil. Lower heat to medium-high and let cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in the shredded cheese until it is melted.
can your freeze it? I made a huge batch and hate for it to waste. so yummy
Yes you can! Let it cool down completely first. Then, divide it into portions and store them in airtight, freezer-safe containers—just leave a little room at the top since it’ll expand when it freezes. When you’re ready to enjoy it again, thaw it in the fridge overnight, then warm it up on the stove over low heat, stirring occasionally. If it looks a little off, just give it a quick blend to get that creamy texture back. Super easy!