People in Thailand eat more chile peppers than anyone else in the world. I read that our region of North America is starting to gain on them. The town of Hatch in New Mexico makes probably the best chile peppers in the world and we get them here in Austin. For a brief period of the year, right as school is starting again, you can smell it in the air; roasting chile peppers. I made a corn chowder over the weekend with the hatch peppers and then yesterday I made an even better one. Not only was it tastier, but it is healthier since I added kale to what is normally not an extremely nutritious meal. I love chowder. It kills me that I can’t get it in restaurants. At whole foods I often check all of their 33 soups and the two vegan ones are never chowder and there is just no reason for that. Chowder is really easy to veganize, just substitute rice milk for the dairy and add some mashed potatoes. This soup is great, if you want to make it with another kind of roasted pepper that would work but it might not be as magical.

Corn & Kale Hatch Pepper Chowder

4 yukon gold potatoes, chopped
2 cups of vegetable broth

5 shallots, chopped
1 rib of celery
1 poblano
2 cloves of garlic
5 leaves of kale
4 roasted Hatch peppers (maybe less if your peppers are really hot or you don’t like spicy things)
2 cups of corn
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried sage
1 cup of rice milk
juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Cook the potatoes in the vegetable broth until they are starting to fall apart, about 20 minutes in the microwave or on the stove top. When they are done mash about half of them with a potato masher. In the meantime start sautéing the shallots, chop the rest of the ingredients in order and add them to the pot as you finish chopping. First add the celery, then the poblano and the garlic. Once the shallots have started to brown add the kale, the hatch peppers, and the corn. Once the kale is wilted add the potato mixture, the rice milk, the sage and the salt. Let the whole mixture cook covered for about 20 minutes. Add the lemon and additional milk or broth if you want it a little thinner and check for seasoning. Now you have awesome soup that you can eat with some crusty bread if that’s how you roll. Enjoy!