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 Soup
- 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.
Nice to find a corn chowder without heavy cream and bacon. This healthier version definitely does not skimp on flavor. I was surprised it was that good and has earned a place in “favorite recipes” folder.
I literally just finished making this and devouring my bowl. It is soooo delicious. I didn’t have white vinegar or sherry so I used apple cider vinegar. I would recommend 1/2 Tbsp if using ACV.
Thank you for the fantastic recipe!
Giirrrrllll! All the recipes…..many thanks! So impressed with your consistency at putting out great recipes one after another. Highly Recommend!
I’m so glad you loved it!
If I don’t have corn husks and need to use canned corn, how much corn would I use?
I could eat soup everyday and corn chowder is a fav. Thanks for this great recipe.
I use 1/3 cup of almond flour and a 1/3 cup water, blended together as a cream to any soup to cut calories
I could eat soup everyday and corn chowder is a fav. Thanks for this great recipe.
I use 1/3 cup off almond flour and a 1/3 cup water, blended together as a cream to any soup to cut calories
So delicious and easy to make! This will be a keeper for sure!
I will be trying this recipe tonight, but by the color of the finished product in this blog, I cannot believe there is no tumeric in the soup. What a vibrant color …. you must have some yellow corn 🙂
I hope you enjoy! The paprika and coconut milk give it kind of an orang-ey color.
Aahhhh … now I see that. I missed the paprika upon first glance. I did make the soup tonight (minus paprika 😉 and it was a winner! Not as yellow … but amazing. I cooked for a large family and everyone wanted seconds. Thank you. 💫🌻🌟
This. Recipe. Is. EPIC!!! I made some small adjustments (used full fat coconut milk, apple cider vinegar, no celery salt, 2 cans of corn instead of cobs), and it was delicious. Definitely one of my new favorite recipes. A friend introduced me to this, and he made the recipe but added roasted sun gold tomatoes, and that was also excellent. Can’t wait to make again!
We made this for a dinner as the main for our vegan attendee. It’s not a great vegan soup… it’s a great soup period! Everyone loved it! The only sub we made was to swap a jalapeño and serrano for the red pepper. Gave it a nice little bite. We’ll be making this again soon, no vegans required. 😉
Yay, I’m so glad everyone loved it!
Really tasty! At first, it was a bit bland so I just increased the seasoning amounts and added a bit of maple syrup (our corn wasn’t quite sweet enough which may have been the blandness culprit). Also used an immersion blender which worked great. Overall, a really great meal!
Yummy, I added sweet chili sauce to give it a kick.
Also I didn’t take the time to blend, it turned out great anyway.
I love this recipe
My husband would give it 10 stars if he could! We loved this! Added a little bit of red pepper flakes per another reviewers suggestion. Going to be a regular recipe at our house! Thank you!
can I use almond milk instead of coconut milk?
So I added shrimp and lobster to my chowder, any idea how well it freezes?
Hi Paula, it froze great for me!
This was sooo good! My whole family loved it, including my hard-to-please omnivorous father. I used frozen corn and full-fat coconut milk (which I think makes up for the swap of fresh corn) but followed then recipe exactly otherwise. This is probably my new favourite loveandlemons recipe.
Hi Haley, I’m so glad everyone loved it!
Absolutely delicious! I’m turning towards a plant based diet and this will now be a recipe i use often. This was meant to be my meal prep for work, but I’m not sure it made enough to cover all the days. I would double it if i were to use it as a meal prep again. Also i do not have a Dutch oven so i just used a big pot and it came out just fine.
Hi Jordyn, I’m so glad you loved it!
This is our go-to corn chowder. Top notch flavors.