Enjoy a bowl of chowder with these healthy soup recipes. These chowders are packed with fresh seafood like salmon, lobster and cod and are the perfect main dish. Serve bright and tasty recipes like Instant Pot Summer Corn & Crab Chowder and Alaskan Cod Chowder with a loaf of crusty bread to sop up all the deliciousness.
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Instant Pot Summer Corn & Crab Chowder
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Sweet corn and tender lump crabmeat go together wonderfully to make this rich, hearty chowder. This colorful, quick and easy Instant Pot soup makes a great starter for a summertime meal.
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Lobster & Corn Chowder
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The trick to making this healthy lobster chowder recipe have tons of rich flavor is to start with great fish stock. (The best is often in the freezer case at the supermarket.) Then cook the lobsters in the stock to intensify its flavor. There is no flour added in this healthy soup, so it's lighter than a typical creamy chowder--plus it's gluten-free.
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Salmon Chowder
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The flavor of this salmon chowder is greatly enhanced by adding either fresh dill or dried tarragon: each herb lends its own distinctively different and appealing character to the soup. Even if you don't keep instant mashed potatoes in your pantry, it's worth picking some up for this soup. They give the soup a thick, chowder texture without any heavy cream or butter. Leftover mashed potatoes work too, but give a slightly less-velvety texture. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.
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Alaskan Cod Chowder
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In this healthy fish chowder recipe, heavy cream is replaced with milk and flour-thickened fish (or seafood) broth and we keep sodium amounts reasonable with lower-sodium broth. By making your own homemade fish chowder, you'll save up to 300 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat and 500 milligrams of sodium per serving compared to many store-bought or restaurant chowders.
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Moqueca (Seafood & Coconut Chowder)
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This seafood stew from Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, dates back hundreds of years and reflects the region's diverse population and history. It merges the African ingredients of dendê (red palm oil) and coconut milk with indigenous traditions of preparing seafood in clay pots over coals. Dendê is traditionally used for its rich flavor and beautiful red color, but you can use canola oil instead, as the tomato paste will still lend the dish a vibrant hue.
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New England Clam Chowder
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Chopped clams, aromatic vegetables and creamy potatoes blended with low-fat milk and just a half cup of cream gives this chunky New England-style clam chowder plenty of rich body. Serve with oyster crackers and a tossed salad to make it a meal.
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Southwest Salmon Chowder
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Perfect for a cold day, this salmon chowder is an excellent source of high quality lean protein and omega-3 fatty acids. As an added bonus, this low-effort chowder can be prepared in less than an hour.
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Slow-Cooker Manhattan-Style Shrimp Chowder
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Look for white, American 22-25 count shrimp--the fresher, the better. They'll poach and become very tender in the hot slow-cooker liquid. Just be sure not to overcook them. Garnish with fennel fronds and serve with bread and olive oil, if desired.
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Tilapia Corn Chowder
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This light soup is a great way to slip fresh corn (and tilapia, of course!) into your late-summer menu. Make it a meal: Enjoy with a mixed green salad and oyster crackers.
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Clam Chowder with Broccoli Stems & Corn
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Keeping frozen corn, canned clams and clam juice on hand means spur-of-the-moment chowder in any season. If you typically compost your broccoli stems, save them for this soup--they hold up better than florets. Set out bowls of toppings like diced red bell pepper, snipped chives or more bacon.
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New England Style Hearty Clam Chowder
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You'll love this classic New England chowder with a twist--lima beans!
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Manhattan Cod Chowder
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This healthy fish chowder recipe with a tomato base is a lighter alternative to creamy soups. If you prefer a stronger-flavored fish in your chowder recipe, try salmon or swordfish instead of the cod. Serve the chowder with oyster crackers, hot sauce and a baby kale Caesar salad.
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Oyster & Corn Chowder
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Take a basic corn chowder recipe, add potatoes, jalapeños, and oysters and what do you get? A hearty 45-minute soup that will have people begging for seconds.
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Slow-Cooker Clam Chowder
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Plan to make this slow-cooker chowder recipe when you have a busy day at work. Put in just a few minutes of prep in the morning and you'll be rewarded with a hearty clam chowder come dinnertime.
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Fish Chowder with Corn & Fennel
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You can use any kind of fish to make this fish and corn chowder, but try to avoid full-flavored varieties like mackerel or bluefish unless it's straight off the boat or it'll overwhelm the soup. "When you're staring down a new type of fish, chowder is a foolproof preparation," chef Mike Lata says, so try this recipe with different kinds of fish.
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Manhattan Clam Chowder
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There's long been a feud between Manhattan's tomato-based clam chowder and the cream-based New England clam chowder. No matter which you prefer, you can't deny that this easy clam chowder will put dinner on the table before you can finish the debate.
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Shrimp Chowder
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A tomato-based broth made with reduced-fat cream cheese and fat-free milk is the backdrop for this delicious fish chowder that's bursting with flounder, shrimp, corn, and potatoes.
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New England Cauliflower Clam Chowder
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Reducing the potatoes by half, and adding cauliflower in its place, lowers the carbs in this creamy meal-in-a-bowl.
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Seafood-Corn Chowder
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The addition of halibut, scallops and clams turns ordinary corn chowder into an extraordinary meal-in-a-bowl.
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Manhattan Crab Chowder
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Manhattan chowder is the red kind, made with disease-fighting lycopene-rich tomatoes. This version substitutes crab for the clams. To make it cook faster, take your time to finely dice the vegetables. We call for convenient canned crushed tomatoes, but you only need 2 cups; store leftover tomatoes in an airtight container for 1 week in the refrigerator or months in the freezer. Then take them out to toss into other soups or sauces--you can't go wrong with adding tomatoes, from a heart-health perspective! All you need is crusty bread or oyster crackers and a tossed salad and you've got dinner.
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Clam Chowder
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In this healthy clam chowder recipe, traditional heavy cream is replaced with milk and flour-thickened clam juice and we keep sodium amounts reasonable with lower-sodium clam juice instead of higher-sodium broths. By making your own creamy clam chowder, you can save up to 300 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat and 500 milligrams of sodium per serving compared to many store-bought or restaurant chowders.
