Delicious Farmer Sausage Corn Chowder (Gluten-Free Optional!)

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This Farmer Sausage Corn Chowder is oh so creamy, packed with vegetables, savoury sausage and tastes even more amazing when sprinkled with bacon and cheddar cheese. There’s even an option for a Gluten-Free version too!

I have the utmost appreciation for soups that offer many different textures and a satisfying mouthfeel, and folks this ones’ got it. The flavours and textures of the sausage, potatoes, corn, carrots, bell peppers, celery, onions, and the creamy roux (flour and butter) all work together to create a deliciously edible masterpiece.

Not to mention, if you decide to top this soup with some shredded cheese and crissssspy bacon your tastebuds will THANK you!

Why Soup Is My Favourite Thing To Cook…

As I’m sure most of you can tell, when it comes to choosing between cooking or baking, it’s always going to be baking for me. Then again, I think I would love cooking more if it wasn’t what I spent 40 hours a week doing. (I’m a chef at a continuing care retirement community and my fellow chefs and I make some incredible entrees. As someone who’s truly appreciative of from-scratch dishes made with quality ingredients, I really am proud to work where I do!)

When a thing that you love goes from being a casual hobby to a full-time means of financial gain, it kind of loses its sparkle. Because I spend all week cooking, the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is cook. (Not having to cook truly is like a vacation to me; a glorious, well-deserved vacation.) But the huge bonus of a job in the food industry, is all the leftover food I get to take home! Therefore, I rarely even need to cook at home anymore.

However, when I do find myself in the kitchen cooking, one of my favourite things to create is…the humble pot of soup.  And it’s mid-November, meaning that fall is in full-swing and the cool winter air–that I’ve been completely dreading–is slowly creeping its way in. It’s the season for soup! Soup is one of those cuisines where once you grasp the basic formula, it can pretty much be applied to most soups across the board. I have come SUCH a long way with soups…

Confession…

Before I went to culinary school I thought that with soups you had to cook each type of ingredient in separate pots and THEN combine them all together at the end. My brain thought it went something like this: saute your mirepoix veggies (carrots, onions, celery) in one pan, boil your potatoes in another, cook off your meat in another, make your stock in another. LOL!

Talk about dirty dishes for days! And it’s not like anyone taught me to do that, it was just my naive uneducated assumption. If you’re not a cook whatsoever and genuinely thought this too, I’m NOT judging you at all because I’ve been there. Let’s just say my mind was completely blown the day I realized I could boil my diced potatoes in the same pot as all the other ingredients.

The Formula Of Soup

You also WANT to cook everything in one pot not only to save time on clean-up with having less dishes to wash, but most importantly because you want your flavours to build. With this corn chowder in particular, it follows the basic formula of most soup recipes.

First you cook your meats in a little bit of oil to get those salty and savoury juices flowin’! It’s those dark bits of meat stuck to the bottom of the pan that have all the flavours in them. Mmm mmm!

Then you add in your celery and onion veggies and saute them in the meat juices/flavours. I’m tellin’ you, veggies never tasted so good. The moisture released from the veggies–along with the chicken broth you add–will deglaze the pan, releasing those glorious flavour bits from the bottom of the pan and mixing nicely into your soup.

Next you add in your chopped potatoes and remaining veggies allowing the flavours to gently simmer together until the potatoes become tender.

What is “Farmer Sausage”?

Some of my non-Canadian friends are probably sitting here scratching their heads…what on earth is “farmer sausage”? WELL, let me be the first to enlighten you! It is raw pork sausage that has been smoked and salted for curing. For those of you who don’t know me very well, farmer sausage was a staple in my childhood household because it’s of Mennonite origin. What do I and farmer sausage have in common? We’re both Mennonite!

Now hold on a minute, before you jump to conclusions and start picturing me wearing a bonnet whilst riding shotgun in a horse and buggy let me quickly explain. Canadian Mennonites from rural Manitoba (where I’m from) are different from Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonites. One drives cars and the other, horse and buggy. There, the end! Haha OK there’s many, MANY more differences but that’s another story for another day–if I ever get around to it.

Kielbasa Sausage–A Great Alternative

Anyway, the farmer sausage tastes SOUP-erb in this soup, but if you live outside of Canada and don’t have access to it,  Kielbasa sausage will do just fine. Trust me. I’ve made it with either sausage and love both versions! In fact, everytime I eat Kielbasa sausage I like it more and more.

This farmer sausage corn chowder is one of my top three favourite soups. (What are the other two you ask? Well, I’ll have to blog about those too one of these days–so stay tuned.)

Go Gluten-Free!

Are you looking for a gluten-free version of this Farmer Sausage Corn Chowder? This is SO EASILY DONE, my friends. Instead of using a roux in the soup, just omit that and pour a cup or two of gluten-free mashed potatoes into the soup. You’ll end up with a nice thick soup without a hurting tummy in the end. YAY!

Products Used To Make This Recipe Happen:

Recipe For Farmer Sausage Corn Chowder:

The original recipe for this amazing Farmer Sausage Corn Chowder recipe is from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook cookbook.

Alright y’all, I’ve posted the recipe below–feel free to press the “Print Me” button to add this soup to your staple recipe book. (I’m still crazy excited about the fact that now having moved from a Blogger site to a WordPress site I have installed a recipe plug-in that has a printing option for my readers! I feel like I’m making progress as a food blogger.)

And lastly, two things I ask of you:

1. If you make this recipe, PLEASE let me know by leaving a comment below. I greatly appreciate feedback.
2. What are some of YOUR all-time favourite soups to make/eat? I love making soup and want to expand my soup repertoire. Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks so much, friends!! Here’s to making delicious savoury soup and keeping warm and cozy! 

5 from 3 votes

Print This Recipe

Farmer Sausage Corn Chowder (Gluten-Free Optional!)

Course Main Course, Soup

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 6 + people

Author Original recipe from Mennonite Girls Can Cook / Altered by Jennifer at Flour & Floral

Ingredients

Soup

• 3 Cups Farmer Sausage or Kielbasa Sausage chopped
• 1 Large Onion diced
• 3 Stalks Celery diced
• 5-6 Cups Chicken Broth or water
• 2 Bell Peppers diced
• 3 Carrots sliced
• 5 Medium Potatoes peeled and large diced
• 1 14 oz Can Cream Style Corn
• 1-2 Cups Frozen or Fresh Corn Kernels
• 1 tsp Salt or to taste
• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper or to taste

Cheese Sauce

• 1/4 cup Butter (if GF, omit this butter and the flour and add 1-2 cups of mashed potatoes into soup, along with the milk and cheddar)
• 1/4 Cup Flour
• 2 Cups Milk
• 2 Cups Cheddar or Mexican Blend cheese grated

Instructions

Soup

1. In a LARGE soup pot, saute sausage with a little bit of oil over medium-high heat.

2. Once sausage is cooked, add the onions and celery to the pot and heat until softened.
3. Pour in the chicken broth (or water) to the pot.
4. Add the bell peppers, carrots, potatoes, and all the corn to the pot.

5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for a minimum of 20 minutes (or until all veggies are tender).

6. While simmering, work on the cheese sauce (below).

Cheese Sauce

1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
2. Whisk in flour to create a roux and keep whisking for a few minutes. (This is important as you want the flour to cook and lose its' raw flavour.)
3. Pour in milk and whisk until smooth and combined.
4. Add cheese and whisk to melt.

5. Pour cheese sauce into the soup, stir, and serve!

Notes

Feel free to garnish this soup with some crispy chopped up bacon and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.

Farmer Sausage Corn Chowder