cheesy vegetable chowder (a Jess post)

I find so many amazing looking recipes on Pinterest. That site has really inspired me. One of those was for cheesy vegetable chowder . For some reason I was thinking it was a crock pot recipe so I had that in my head all week until I finally thought about getting it started this morning. Sadly, it was not. But that is actually ok because my crock pot was still soaking from last night's garlic chicken anyway!

I used Lulu the Baker's recipe VERY loosely, just as a basis for the chowder. But I will actually write mine out since it differed pretty significantly! I sort of used this as a "kitchen sink" type of recipe to use up a lot of the veggies that I had on hand!

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup shredded carrot

1 stalk celery, finely chopped 

1 teaspoon minced garlic

5 cups chicken broth

salt & pepper

1/4 tsp thyme 

3 medium yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

1 cup milk

1.5 cups chopped broccoli

1 cup chopped cauliflower

6 asparagus spears, chopped into 1 inch pieces

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic and saute until tender. 

Add broth, thyme, salt and pepper to taste, and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender- approximately 15 minutes. Mix flour with water until smooth and then stir into soup and heat until it begins to thicken. Add milk and remaining vegetables. 

Simmer until vegetables are heated through, bright in color, and become tender- approximately 7 minutes. Stir in cheese until melted and incorporated into broth. Serve immediately with crusty bread.

Tada!

You guys, this stuff was AMAZING if I do say so myself. I happen to LOVE creamy soups and this hit the spot. I can only imagine how awesome it would be on a cold, snowy day. And since it had so many veggies in it, I didn't feel as bad about the cheese! And actually, 8 ounces for the entire pot is not so bad. Drew really liked it too (except for the cauliflower, apparently). Unfortunately, it took longer than little G was able to wait for so he had a separate dinner. But he'll get to try some leftovers this weekend! (if I don't eat them all myself...) This is going to be a simple pleasure I make again and again and again...