This easy vegan corn chowder recipe is one of our all-time favorite soups! Smoky, sweet & creamy, it's destined for your regular meal rotation.
It’s hard for me to pick favorites, but I’ll come out and say it: this vegan corn chowder recipe is one of my favorite soups on the blog. I don’t care what temperature it might be outside – I could eat a bowl of this creamy, smoky corn chowder anytime.
Vegan Corn Chowder Recipe Ingredients
This vegan corn chowder recipe uses veggies and spices to get a delicious creamy texture and smoky flavor without any meat or dairy. Here’s what’s in it:
- Onion, garlic, and celery make up its aromatic base.
- Sweet corn is the star of the show! It contributes to the creamy texture, adds essential sweetness, and dots the soup with crispy kernels.
- Potatoes thicken the soup’s creamy base and add chunky texture.
- Red bell pepper adds great veggie flavor and deepens the golden color.
- Light coconut milk works with the corn and potato to perfect the creamy texture. If you’re not vegan, you can swap in whole milk to make this a vegetarian corn chowder.
- Sherry vinegar brightens it up!
- And smoked paprika and celery salt add rich, smoky flavor without any meat!
How to Make the Best Vegan Corn Chowder
Great veggie ingredients are the base of this soup, but these steps are essential for making it smoky, satisfying, and delicious:
- After you slice the kernels off cobs of fresh sweet corn, use the back of your knife to scrape the juices off the cob. Add this starchy, milky liquid to the chowder to make it extra creamy and rich.
- Blend half the soup, and leave the rest chunky. Because of the starches in fresh corn and potatoes, these vegetables blend into a luscious creamy broth. I like to blend part of the chowder to create this creamy base and leave the rest chunky for texture.
- Don’t forget to garnish. Save a few raw corn kernels and pieces of diced red pepper to sprinkle over bowls of chowder. They’ll create the perfect crispy contrast to the creamy soup. For extra smoky flavor, try topping it with coconut bacon or tempeh bacon bits!
More Favorite Soup Recipes
If you love this plant-based corn chowder, try one of these delicious soup recipes next:
- Yellow Split Pea Soup
- Butternut Squash SoupÂ
- Many-Veggie Vegetable Soup
- Carrot Ginger Soup
- French Onion Soup
- Creamy Potato Soup
Or find more of my favorite soups here!
Vegan Corn Chowder
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 Yukon gold potato, chopped
- 4 ears fresh sweet corn, husked
- 1 red pepper, diced
- ½ teaspoon celery salt
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, or white wine vinegar
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk (or 1¾ cups whole milk)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Chopped chives, for garnish
- Reserve some corn kernels and diced red pepper for garnish (optional)
- Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and a few pinches of salt.
- Cook until soft, then add the garlic, celery, and potatoes.
- Slice the kernels off the corn, then use the back of your knife to scrape the juices off of the corn cob and add to the pot. Add the red pepper, celery salt, paprika, a pinch of salt, black pepper, and stir. Cook until the potatoes are slightly softened, about 5 minutes, then add the sherry vinegar, vegetable broth, and coconut milk.
- Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 more minutes. Let cool slightly, then transfer half the soup to a blender. Blend until creamy then return it back to the pot and stir.
- Taste and adjust seasonings and serve with chopped chives.
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I made the recipe exactly as stated and it was delicious. For garnish i chopped fresh chives and drizzled a little green sirracha sauce. Great end of the summer meal!! Thank you
Hi Maria – I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂
OMG, thank you!!! I have this simmering on the stove now and it’s absolutely amazing! I have to say that I was skeptical about using the coconut milk because I thought it would taste coconuty despite your saying that it wouldn’t. But you were bang on – no coconut flavour, just a big pot of deliciousness! I used the corn cobs to make the broth used in this chowder and I’d highly recommend it – don’t throw them out – there’s flavour in them there cobs! Toss in a pot with some water and gently boil for about 1/2 an hour. Yum! Thanks for such great vegan recipe – will definitely make again and again and again!
Hi Rose, I’m so happy to hear that you loved this one! Thanks for the tip about the corn cobs!
Such a wonderful idea! I’ll be using the cobs for my broth too!
This is excellent! I have been looking for a classic vegan corn chowder and this is IT! I didn’t have celery salt so added a little saffron, and our corn wasn’t quite perfectly sweet, so I added a squeeze of agave syrup. I’ve made a few vegan corn chowders and this is the absolute best. Easy to prepare. One of those recipes that is greater than the sum of its parts, good enough for company, and easy peasy. Thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it! This is one of my all time favorites. The saffron sounds delicious 🙂
We get a vegetable box delivered once a week for our family of 6 here in Melbourne Australia. For the past couple of weeks we have been getting two ears of corn. finally we had about 10 sitting in the fridge unused. after Googling corn recipes and this being the best option for our vegetarian, gluten, dairy, egg and most nuts intolerant family!
Your soup recipe was a revelation! Corn has become a way more appreciated vegetable in our house. I doubled the recipe to make sure we had enough and the whole lot disappeared into very appreciative tummies. Thank you for creating something so simple yet so delicious which I think will become a staple at our house. I can’t wait to get your cookbook as your recipes cover everything on our weekly shopping list. Thanks again 🙂
Great recipe! My fiancé and I added some habanero and cayenne pepper to spice things up. Some diced avocado puts this dish over the top!
Despite it being freezing cold in Illinois right now, I made this summery soup for dinner tonight. It was wonderful and a fairly quick dinner to make! Love your blog…it’s always a go-to when trying to find new and interesting recipes.
Oh my goodness. I made this tonight because my hubby was craving corn chowder, but I prefer to eat vegan…so quick google search and I found you. It was to die for!!! My inlaws (who are so far from vegan) loved it too. Major hit, and so easy, especially when you use leftover baked potatoes like me. Thank you!!!
I’m so glad – yay! Thanks for letting me know that frozen corn worked great – corn season is so short so that’s so helpful to know!
I was wondering if it would be alright to use Frozen Corn?
Hi Nadine, I haven’t tried, but I’m thinking it would be fine… let me know if you give it a try..
Oh I used frozen corn because there were no cobs at my grocery store. It still tasted amazing.
How much frozen corn did you use?
I can’t remember…I think I just googled how much corn one cob would make and then eyeballed it 😀
Hi there,
Do you have a nutritional break down of all fat, carbs etc per portion (and what the portion size is)?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Cat, I don’t count calories, but you can find a nutritional calculator online – this serves 4-6 (depends how hungry you are, but it is a very filling soup).
Would it be possible to use green pepper instead of red pepper? I’m trying to empty out our fridge and we have an abundance of green peppers but no red.
Does this recipe demand a dutch oven? Can I use a big soup pot instead?
Stock pot works perfectly!
This recipe is to die for. So healthy, light, delicious… a perfect meal for a chilly fall day. I topped it with bacon, cheese and homemade croutons. 🙂
Yay, I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Great summer recipe ! Easy to make
This is an absolutely amazing recipe! Just linked to it with a photo of my version on the Vegan Mainstream Cookbook Club…https://plus.google.com/115449850275641668569/posts/jjBCr52VjuZ
I’ll be keeping this saved in my recipe arsenal. Thanks!
Can I make this a day ahead or would you recommend making day of?
Thanks!
Hi Johanna, you can definitely make it a day ahead (it actually tastes better the second day!)
This soup is SPECTACULAR. I’ve made it twice now and still can’t believe how good it is! My all time favorite soup. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks! I’m so glad you liked it – it’s definitely one of my favorites too 🙂
This corn chowder was WONDERFUL! Such a sweet burst of flavor. Even my kids loved it. Thank you so much!
This is our new favorite soup/chowder by far. Just upped the game with new Vitamix, which brings new meaning to the creamy blended half. So good and so good for you. Thanks!
I’m so glad you liked it! Congrats on your new vitamix (I’m pretty obsessed with mine!)
Hey
I’ve just tried this receipe an it so amazing…..sooooooooo gooooooooood ! the texture is perfect. I had a pinch of chili flakes to spice it up a bit and so good.
Bon Appétit.
Je viens juste de faire cette recette et elle est excellente, la texture est parfaite!!! C’est certain que je vais la refaire, elle va devenir un must à la maison!
Bon Appétit
Love, love, love it! What fantastic flavor!