Sausage & Cheese Chowder

Since Fall has hit and I’m trying to use what we have in our freezers I wanted to make something soupy. My family isn’t the biggest of fans when it comes to soup but I like it and figured I’d try my hand at a new recipe. Ginger Lemon Girl has a delicious looking Cheeseburger Chowder recipe and I did some tweaking to make it more appealing to my family, picky eaters! I also was in the mood to try some new bread recipes and for some reason they just didn’t rise though I’m sure my yeast is still good. I did put them in the bread machine and they weren’t written for that so I think I’m going to play around to see if I can get them to work out in the bread machine. The first recipe was honey sandwich bread and it was delicious just really stumpy. My boy ate a lot of it and the loaf was gone in less than 24 hours so if I can perfect the recipe I will share.

Sausage & Cheese Chowder
Adapted from Ginger Lemon Girl

1 package GF sausage slice into coins (I used Aidell’s from Costco)
½ medium onion
¾ C diced carrots (I forgot this)
¾ C chopped celery
1 t basil
1 t parsley
3 T butter*
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 C GF chicken broth
4 C red potatoes, cubed

2 C frozen corn
2 T cornstarch
2 C shredded cheddar cheese*
2 C milk*
Crumbled bacon

In a large pot melt 1 T of butter over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, garlic and sausage. Cook until the sausage if browned. Stir in the parsley, basil, chicken broth, carrots, corn, and potatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes and carrots are tender, about 10-15 minutes. Melt the remaining 2 T of butter and add to the milk. Whisk in the cornstarch and then gradually pour into the chowder stirring constantly. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer. Stir in the cheese and allow to heat through. Sprinkle the bowls of chowder with the crumbled bacon and serve with GF bread, mmm. This makes about 8 servings.

Waking up to 6 inches of snow this morning really makes this dish even more enticing, too bad we finished our leftovers last night.

*This is deliciously made dairy free. Sub the butter with Earth Balance, the cheese with Daiya, and the milk with rice or your favorite DF milk substitute. I was so impressed with how delicious this was dairy free.