Fall & Winter Soup Contest Entrant #6: Veganized Corn & Potato Chowder

All chowders are soups, but not all soups are chowders.

Before we discuss this particular soup-- and address the rumblings of an unnamed judge-- I'll direct you to the all things soup page where you can find links to discussion of and recipes for all six entrants in this years PLUS the bonus soup that didn't make it to the soup contest because we did not have a quorum of judges. 

This was a very good fall and winter soup. Smooth yet chunky. Seasoned very well although I noted some folks opted for a bit more salt. Miss M put it in 1st place, but bear in mind this is only the second she's voted on. 

Here are the standings so far:

• Entrant #4, Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup, has three 1st place votes. 
• Entrant #6, Veganized Corn & Potato Chowder, has one 1st place, one 2nd, two 3rd, and one 4th place votes.
• Entrant #1, Hot Potato Soup, has one 1st place and one 2nd place votes.
• Entrant #5, California Minestrone, has one 2nd and two 3rd place votes.
• Entrant #3, Cream of Bean, has one 2nd place vote. 
• Entrant #2 fell out of the running after Beer Cheese Broccoli.

 And now to the controversy regarding chowders and stews... .


According to The New Food Lover's Companion Fourth Edition (Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst, Barron's Educational Series, Inc., Hauppauge, New York, 2007) 

SOUP is "any combination of vegetables, meat or fish cooked in a liquid. It may be thick (like gumbo), thin (such as consomme), smooth (bisque), or chunky (chowder or bouillabaisse)." 

CHOWDER is a term "also used to describe any thick, rich soup containing chunks of food (for instance, corn chowder)."

STEW is "any dish prepared by stewing. The term is most often applied to dishes that contain meat, vegetables and a thick soup-like broth resulting from a combination of stewing liquid and natural juices of the food being stewed. stew v. A method of cooking by which food is barely covered with liquid and simmered slowly for a long period of time in a tightly covered pot."


I think the decision to include chowders but not stews in the soup contest is not arbitrary but justified. But we can certainly discuss it.