New England "Clam" Chowder

I have an old recipe for New England Clam Chowder from a previous life. It was always a hit at parties, but for obvious reasons I haven’t made it in quite a while, but over the weekend I decided to give it another shot.

I picked up some MimicCreme at the Vegetarian Expo in Saratoga Springs, NY this fall in anticipation of re-structuring my old recipe.

Here is what I came up with:

2 packages of mushrooms (I used a medley of oyster, cremini & porcini)
3 large carrots (washed, peeled & diced)
6 stalks of celery (washed, peeled & diced)
1 onion (diced)
2 cans of sliced potatoes (drained)
32 oz MimicCreme

I sautéed the mushrooms in some Earth Balance until they had “wilted” a bit (do mushrooms wilt?) and then set to the side while I sautéed the carrots, celery & onions in some canola oil (as with most other recipes, I let them go until the onions were translucent).

I threw all o f the sautéed ingredients in a large pot with the MimicCreme & potatoes. I added a few drops of liquid smoke (my previous recipe called for bacon, hence the smoke). I covered the pot and let simmer on medium low for about 20 minutes.

I checked (and stirred) it often as this was the first time I had worked with MimicCreme and didn’t know what to expect.

The final product passed the test I value the most…my wife’s delicate palette. She answered my question of “How is it?” with the eyes of a child on Christmas morning. I took this as a positive response.

Normally I would toss a few handfuls of oyster crackers in but the pantry was bare. What I found out was even better was some Italian bread with some Earth Balance spread...mmmm.