My wife and I both love good clam chowder. On our vacation driving through New England, and then back to Seattle, we had many different clam chowders. Some were great, and some were just okay. But I decided to see if I could make a low fat clam chowder. I didn’t even know if it was possible since generally clam chowder has a lot of cream, and butter and stuff. But when I searched, I found a recipe that sounded promising. It was okay as is, but I thought it could be better. So I began tweaking it. I actually combined it with another recipe I had for clam chowder. The result was a very good clam chowder while retaining it’s low fat quality. Give it a shot. If you like clam chowder, I think you will like it.
Ingredients:
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup onions, finely diced
1 cup celery, finely diced
1/2 cup flour
4 cans chopped clams (6 1/2 oz)
2 (8-oz) bottles clam juice
1 oz turkey bacon, diced
1 cup of 2% milk
1 tsp salt
1 dash pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp lemon juice
Directions:
Place diced potatoes in large sauce pan and cover with cold water. Bring potatoes to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and let cook for 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Once the potatoes are simmering, place butter in another saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Add the celery and onions, and stir; sauté until tender, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Stir in the flour. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
In the large saucepan that had the potatoes, add the bottled calm juice, and the clam juice from the canned clams. Add in the diced bacon, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute. Gradually whisk the clam juice/bacon into the vegetable/flour mixture until smooth. Heat over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes, milk, and salt, pepper, thyme, sugar, lemon juice. Stir often, until heated through. Stir in clams and heat for about 1 minute.
Serve.