Seafood and Mushroom Chowder

A delicious and hearty mushroom chowder with seafood that holds the perfect consistency but with no heavy cream, yet still creamy!

I remember people telling me before I moved here, that it gets cold in San Francisco during summertime. It didn’t really make sense to me until now – my first summer in SF. It’s definitely chillier than a couple of months before. There is even an obvious temperature difference in different areas of the city. Instead of craving nice, cold drinks like most people do in summer, warm soup is what I have been thinking about recently.

It’s creamy and tasty with milk, vegetables, and seafood. It’s supposed to have a special aroma that drives you to devour it one spoon after another nonstop, just like New England Clam Chowder. (Oh my! My mouth is watering already just typing the name of the soup…)

This Seafood and Mushroom Chowder turned out to be a little similar to Clam Chowder but with no heavy cream, yet still creamy. How is it possible? Stir-fried all-purpose flour does the trick. It’s a crucial step for bringing the perfect thickness and great aroma to what I’m calling a one-of-a-kind soup. I bet you would agree with me after you try it out! 🙂

When stir-frying with flour, there’s one important thing that I would like to talk about – which type of oil should we use? I would recommend using avocado oil in this case because it has a higher smoke point compared to olive oil. The smoke point is literally the point at which oil starts to smoke. Olive oil decomposes and generates dangerous molecules under high heat and the smoke itself is toxic. It does best at low and medium heat.

As for the seafood in this soup, I went for shrimp but that can be replaced with scallops and crab sticks. I have personally tried all of them separately with this soup. The result is that you can’t really go wrong with any of these. It’s absolutely delicious! I hope you like it, too!

All right, enough talking. Let’s start cooking!

Seafood and Mushroom Chowder

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A delicious and hearty seafood chowder that holds the perfect consistency but with no heavy cream, yet still creamy! 

• Author: Sharon Chen
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings
• Category: Soup
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 cups red onion, diced
• 4 ounces white button mushroom, finely sliced
• 3 tablespoons avocado oil (or butter)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups milk
• 6 ounces of medium-sized shrimp or scallops, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste

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Instructions

1. Place butter into a pan with high heat. Move the butter around the bottom of the pan with your spatula until it melts completely.
2. Add onion and mushroom and sauté for 2-3 minutes until the butter is evenly spread out onto the veggies. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. In the same pan over medium-high heat, add avocado oil. Use one hand to hold the measuring cup of flour. Slowly and gradually sprinkle the flour into the oil. In the meantime, keep stirring with your spatula with your free hand. Please note that all we are trying to do here is to keep the flour from sticking and turning into lumps. You should always keep stirring in this process and not put the flour into the oil all at once. After adding all the flour, continue to stir a couple of times and set aside for later. (If you like, discard the extra oil above the flour by using a spoon after letting it sit for a few minutes.)
4. Place the sautéed onion and mushroom into a saucepan. Add water and bring to a boil.
5. Add milk, shrimp, sea salt, and stir-fried flour into the saucepan. Stir.
6. Watch it closely because it takes a short amount of time for milk to boil. When it does, sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper to taste and add more sea salt if desired. (I didn’t have to add additional salt.)
7. Transfer the chowder into a bowl and serve immediately.

About the Author

Sharon Chen

Sharon Chen is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and author of the Complete Sous Vide Cookbook. She believes food not only brings healing but also connection. As the creator of StreetSmart Kitchen, she aims to make meal prep easier than ever and help you find balance, ease, joy, and simplicity in the kitchen as you improve your well-being.