Recipe review: Simply Recipes’ Salmon Chowder

I love when the weather starts to warm up. The snow finally goes away, and the grass, trees and flowers all look so nice.

Of course, eventually I’ll have to deal with bugs and sunburns — both of which I seem to experience plenty of in the summer. But I’m trying not to think about those aspects too much quite yet. Instead, I’m focusing on enjoying the short spring that we get here, before the weather dives into summer.

For me, part of enjoying that spring is staying warm and cozy on a rainy day. I know that sounds odd — we have about six months of winter where I live, so why would I want to spend extra time inside? But there’s just something really appealing about a rainy day. Maybe it’s the refreshing smell or the relaxing sound, or possibly the idea of having a more socially acceptable reason for staying in to read a book.

Or maybe it’s the chance to enjoy a warm, comforting soup like Simply Recipes’ Salmon Chowder.

If you have the chance to make this soup, I definitely recommend that you do. It was easy to make, and it didn’t take very long — a little over an hour, including chopping most of the ingredients ahead of time.

And the flavour… wow. For a seafood chowder, this didn’t have an overly fishy taste. The salmon was balanced well by the bacon, cream and herbs. And using leeks instead of the yellow onions I’m used to meant that there wasn’t the strong onion scent or flavour that I was expecting.

There were some changes that I made, however. I found that the water and chicken stock called for in the recipe wasn’t quite enough, as it ended up reducing quite a bit as the soup was simmering. So I added an extra cup of water, as well as an extra quarter-cup of cream. I also took the bay leaves out of the soup once their scent started to get strong, as I didn’t want them to overpower the other flavours in the soup.

I’m definitely planning on making this soup again, though I think I’ll use a little less potato next time; even after adding the extra water and cream, I found that there wasn’t as much broth as I would have liked there to be.

I’ve also put some of the leftover soup in my freezer, though I’m not sure how that will turn out. Some people have told me that soup that has milk and potatoes in it doesn’t freeze well, and others have told me it works out fine. So, I’m experimenting. Hopefully the frozen soup will be just as good as the fresh soup, and I’ll get another few good meals out of it. And I’ll definitely make sure to update you guys on the results of that.

Now, I have something new for you. Starting with this post, I’m going to include a “summing up” on all of my recipe review posts, in the hopes of making them a bit more helpful.

To sum it up…

• Time to prepare and cook/bake: Approximately 1 hour
• Difficulty: Fairly easy
• How it tasted: So incredibly good
• Would I make it again: Yes, though there are some slight changes I would make