This is a hearty creamy vegetable soup that has been a favorite in our family for many years! It is a perfect meal for a cold winter evening and a great way to use those seasonal winter vegetables! You can mix and match the vegis as to what you may have on hand. This recipe was formally published here but has been revised and updated. A wonderful accompaniment to soaked spelt biscuits (which you can also make with any variety of flour) topped with butter and honey! Yum!
1/2 chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
1 cup each diced potato, celery, cauliflower, carrot and broccoli
3 cups water
3 chicken bouillon cubes (or just 3 cups of chicken broth to replace water and bouillon)
1 teaspoon salt
3 garlic cloves or 1-2 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup flour or arrowroot powder
2 cups milk
1 Tbls minced fresh parsley
1/8-1/4 tsp of each the following spices: paprika, coriander, ground mustard (increase as desired)
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (can be adjusted as desired, as I rarely use more than 2 cups of cheese)
In a Dutch oven or large pot, saute green pepper, onion and butter until tender. Add vegetables, water, bouillon, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Combine flour and milk until smooth; stir into pan. Allow to thicken at a low temperature. Add the parsley and other spices. Just before serving, stir in the cheese until melted. Yield: 6-8 servings. This chowder freezes very well also! Just allow room for expansion.
Do you think veggie stock/broth would work? My BF is vegetarian and doesn’t consume meat broths/stock. (Milk and cheese is ok though.)
My husband and I really enjoy this soup! We had some left over and decided to add some chicken left over from a monthly whole roasted bird to make a chicken pot pie filling. It worked great! If I do the pot pie again, I might add a little white wine and thyme while reheating with the chicken to deepen the flavor even more. Thanks for all your great recipes!
Hi,
I am just making it and I used chicken broth that I made and then froze, but I’m wondering, if you use bouillon cubes, which ones do you use? The ones at the store are filled with awful stuff. I ordered some from Azure, but if you know of something else, please tell!
Thanks!
Making a double batch again tonight. Also prepared the veggies for another double batch later in the week – it’s that good. Do you freeze before adding the milk/flour mixture or is it okay to add it before? I add lots of different things to it – always delicious! Thanks.
I freeze it after it is completely prepared.
Absolutely delicious!! Added abit of cream, some veges that I had to replace the ones I didn’t and gave it all a quick mash. Definitely a permanent on our winter menu
We love this! A big hit! I leave out the green pepper all together and only put cheese in to taste at the table. Right before serving I use my immersion blender to blend it up halfway (makes all those veggies more palatable for my crew.) Often then I don’t add any flour and milk because it gets a creamy texture already from the blending.
Our family loved these so much, I’ve featured the recipe link on our site’s “In the Kitchen” page.
I just made this for the first time tonight. It was delicious! We were running low on some veggies, so I was only able to do onions, potatoes, celery, broccoli and I threw in some spinach. Yum! Thanks for the great ideas.
I made this tonight and it is wonderful! I substituted unsweetened hemp milk for the milk and goat cheese for the cheese. I used about three tablespoons arrowroot powder with the hemp milk instead of flour. I may try four tablespoons next time. I cannot believe how great this tastes even with the hemp milk and goat cheese. You’ve got to try it!
Thanks for the yummy recipe. I used veggies I had in the fridge and my fall garden broccoli. I also added corn to mine. My husband and boys liked it too.
We had this tonight and LOVED it! It reminded me of Panera’s broccoli cheddar soup
do you use 1/2 c of arrowroot powder instead of 1/2 c flour?? if so maybe I’ll just try 1/2 c gf flour mix….
sounds wonderful, looking forward to trying it
I probably use less arrowroot powder than flour -maybe 2-4 TBSP as it is more effective in thickening. You could certainly substitute 1/2 cup of gf flour as well.
Thank you for this recipe! I just finished making it right now, and I am eating it with smal sourdough bread squares. It is very good! Next time, I will use less salt and a milder kind of cheese though. I will also try adding white beans. I followed the recipe to the letter save for substituting wheat flower for white flower.
Thank again:)
Had this tonight for dinner. I tried to just run back and forth between the kitchen and computer and memorize the recipe as I made it, but I ended up forgetting the cheese when I thought I was done. I tried it and ended up adding more of each spice, and then added some leftover nitrate-free bacon (hubby is convinced it’s not a meal without meat!
. I also used 1 1/2 cups cream and 1/2 cup milk instead of all milk. It was delicious! My 3-year-old slurped it up before I remembered to put cheese in it (which I remembered AFTER serving it), and my hubby even loved it, and he claims to not like any soups! A great way to get veggies and nourishing broth into my family. Every recipe we’ve tried of yours has been a big hit. Thanks so much for sharing!
Glad you liked it! I always add a bit more spices myself and bacon would be an excellent addition!
Thanks so much for this recipe! We loved it!
This soup is delicious! It’s become a regular on our menu rotation. Thanks for sharing.
This looks delicious and I’m excited to put it on my menu very soon.
This looks so fabulous and easy to convert for a vegan (coconut milk, Earth Balance “butter”, no cheese) and love the idea of adding white beans. Thanks!
This was GREAT!!! I used what I had on hand which was cauliflower (almost the entire small head), carrots, and 3 or 4 small potatoes. I only had a large beef bullion cube. I added about 2 extra cups of water and celery salt since I didn’t have any celery on hand. Oh and also used a small amount of red bell pepper since I had it left in the fridge and no green pepper. I can’t wait to make this again!! It tasted EXACTLY like what I hoped it would! VERY HAPPY!!!
Lindsay – Do you think using goat milk in this recipe would throw off the flavor?
I really do not know. I would imagine if your goats milk is pretty potent that it would impact the flavor.
We just made this tonight. AWESOME! Tons of flavor! Will be making it again and again. I made some homemade Italian crusty bread to go with it . . . Yowsers! Thanks for the recipe!! It will be a staple for us!
I made this soup and everyone loved it. It had what all my other potato soups had been missing…flavor! Thanks for the great recipe.
i made this with collard greens, a yam, carrots, onions, and celery. my husband loved it. thanks for the recipe. i’m always looking for good things to eat that my husband will like!
We made this tonight. Substituted light coconut milk for the dairy milk. REALLY great! Quick too! Thanks for the wonderful recipe! This will be a frequent meal!
I stumbled upon this blog too. I made this last night and it was an instant hit. I’m serving it again this Thursday for my in laws. My husband had three bowls!
cooked this tonight. DELICIOUS!
I came across this recipe the other day and my husband and I made it last night. It was DELICIOUS!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Lindsay thank you so much for this recipe. I made it tonight. It was delicious. My husband actually said he was very impressed! This will be a regular recipe in my home from now on.
I cheated a little and used a bag of California Mix (cauliflower, broccoli and carrots.
Thanks for all you share. I am really enjoying your blog. I am looking forward to the frozen meals.
I made this tonight, and loved it! We just used the veggies we had left at the end of the week, which ended up being broccoli & carrots, and it still turned out wonderfully…thanks for the great recipe!
I’m totally going to try this!
I made this for the family last night and it was a big hit. I personally didn’t think it needed 3 cups of cheese. Next time, I will serve it with shredded cheese on the side for everyone to add to their own taste.
This looks really good except I have to have a protein in my meals or I get hungry way too quickly afterwards. Could you suggest any beans or meats that would go good with this soup?
It does have a small amount of protein with the milk and cheese, but you could definitely add some white beans to the mix as desired, or serve it alongside a bean dish of some sort. We serve it with the biscuits or bread and we are quite satisfied.
My daughter can’t have any grains or milk, but I would love to make this recipe. Do you have any idea how to make it without these two ingredients?
You can just eliminate the milk and cheese, or just add it in individual bowls for those who can have dairy.
We use coconut milk in place of regular milk for recipes like this and it turns out wonderful!
That looks delicious!
Lindsay, do you use a Dutch oven very often? I would be interested in a post on them…I know nothing about them!
In the NE they are also called stock pots, dutch ovens interchangeable.
Use them for soups, stews, chili etc. Basically making a large amount of anything.
I use a large basic pot. It is pretty much the same thing as a large stock pot as Kate suggested. My mom always called it a dutch oven so that is why it is listed that way above in the recipe.
Years, ago I had to ask my mom too. I thought it was some other contraption!
mmmm…can’t wait to try it!
Oh yum, looks delicious
Sounds really nice. I love any sort of a chowder, and soup is an easy way to get veggies into my little ones.
Oh wow! I am so happy to have stumbled upon your blog! I’m always looking for like-minded mommies to read and so I’m very excited to have found you! I too am a Christian wife and mom wanting to learn more about simple living and natural living. I have four children, one of which was born at home! (One in a birth center and two hospital.) Anyway, I’m excited to read- especially your upcoming freezer meals event!
That’s one really nice thing about soups, you can always modify depending on what you have on hand and it usually comes out awesome. Soups are really forgiving that way.
Hmmm sounds good, but I can no longer handle peppers nor onions (except vidalia, but they are now out of season).
You actually don’t have to add the green pepper (it is out of season for us now so I didn’t add it this last time around) and can substitute the onions for leeks or onion powder for that matter. There are lots of options!
Thanks! I think I’ll give this a try, it has some many veggies in it I love.
We’re batting down for an ice storm overnight, so this would be a lovely lunch treat!
Thanks!! Not sure why I didn’t think of onion powder…brain moment? lol
We tried this today!! It is sooooooo good! I did use leeks, and onion powder.
Thanks for sharing.
Sounds fab. I make something similar to this, but never thought of adding green pepper.
Sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try it! About how many servings does this make?
It yields 6-8 servings as described above.
ohhhh , so wondrous. I must make this.
Thank you.
Yum! We love chowder, too! I often toss in some leftover canned salmon into it, too, and any milk I have leftover from making mayonnaise.
Blessings,
Michele
Yummy! This sounds like the perfect thing to make for lunch on this cold day!
Looks yummy!