SEATTLE — Corn chowder does not sound like a thrill. A ubiquitous vegetable plus a soup intended to make use of any kind of ubiquitous stuff using also-ubiquitous milk and/or cream, plus other ubiquitous vegetables ... should be fine. Not amazing, however. And, then, vegan corn chowder — not to cast aspersions on anyone's dietary choices, but subtracting the dairy from the situation ... maybe less good.
Chef Kristi Brown of Seattle's stellar Communion makes AMAZING vegan corn chowder. Apologies for the all-caps, but this is corn chowder that makes one want to SHOUT ABOUT IT. To quote myself from January 2021 (for I already have rhapsodized about this corn chowder): "This superlative soup could fool the biggest butter-lover: luxurious in texture yet also earthy, sweet and slightly smoky, spicy but sneakily so. The star ingredient is joined by a full supporting cast of sweet potato, carrot, celery and onion, served topped with lots of green onion diagonal-cut for peppery freshness." In December 2020, I also correctly described this vegan corn chowder as "magnificent."
I pestered Brown for details back then, and she would say only that it is definitely vegan, that very good olive oil comes into play, that saving lots of vegetable scraps to make your own vegetable stock is clutch, and that the seasoning is her own mix of "like 18 different spices" that she calls Sez'. She says she's going to start selling Sez', and we all should hope fervently for this gift to humanity.
