Spicy Vegetarian "Clam" Chowder

I'm excited to get to guest blog today! I really like clam chowder, so I thought I would try to make an adaptation. I used this recipe as the base. I used vegetable broth instead of chicken, and just left out the clams entirely. Some of the other recipes I was looking up had spicy variations, and I like to have Cajun seasoning anytime I can, so I added that as well.

Ingredients:

Soup:
-2 tablespoons unsalted butter
-2 celery stalks quartered lengthwise, then sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
-5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
-2 cups vegetable stock
-1 cup heavy cream
-2 bay leaves
-1 pound Idaho potatoes, cut into 1/2- inch cubes
-Salt and pepper

Croutons:
-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
-French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
-3 tablespoons freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
-Salt and pepper

Soup ingredients

Crouton ingredients

Melt the butter on low heat, and add the celery. You could add onion too if you want.

Add the flour. I added a bit more than the originally recipe because it didn't look thick enough, so you can adjust a bit for the thickness you like.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the salt, pepper and cajun.) on medium heat, bring to a simmer then cook for 20 minutes on low. Add the salt, pepper and cajun at the end. 

In the meantime make the croutons. Melt the butter in the pan and coat the bread. Add the salt, pepper and  parsley. Cook for 3-5. Mine were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

I thought this tasted pretty good. I originally didn't intend to add the Cajun, and just added it to my bowl after I tried it. As I expected it didn't taste quite like clam chowder, more like potato soup. I thought adding the Cajun gave it an extra kick.