Chowder Base
By: Anonymous
Published: Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 6:17pm

Ingredients




cup diced turkey bacon
2 cups diced onions
1 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced scallions
2 garlic cloves minced
3 cups diced potatoes
1 can reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth 
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
teaspoon dried thyme
teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1 bay leaf

Preparation

1 In a soup pot over medium-high heat, saute bacon 5 minutes until browned. Add onions, celery, scallions, and garlic. Cook 5 minutes, stirring often; do not brown. Add potatoes, broth, mustard, thyme, pepper, and bay leaf. Mix well. 2 Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes until potatoes are tender. Remove bay leaf. Use this base in the recipes that follow. 3 This recipe yields 6 cups. 4 Tom's Chowder Tips: Want a thicker broth? Forget the fatty butter and flour base. Instead, puree a cup of vegetables with broth in a blender. 5 For milk-based chowder, heat the milk separately and add just before serving to keep the milk from curding. 6 Tom's secret ingredients: Stir in some mustard for a flavor boost. Dijon, yellow, deli, and German are all equally good. 7 Instant Chowders:Potato Chowder: Add 3 cups hot low-fat (1%%) milk to the chowder base. 8 Tomato Chowder: Add a 15-ounce can of chopped tomatoes and 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth to the chowder base. Heat through. 9 These recipes yield ?? servings. 10 Comments: I like to use turkey bacon; it gives chowder a nice smoky flavor. But you can replace it with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Refrigerate chowder base for up to two days, or freeze for future use. 11 Yield: 6 cups