Corn in the chowder

It seems it is the season for soup. Dear Friend (mother of Stand Partner) called yesterday, asking for advice about adapting a chowder recipe to their dietary restrictions. She's still working her way through the salmon that thawed too much during the power outage, as well as trying to use up the celery that fell victim to the Cuisinart mini-prep.

Since it was to be dairy and wheat free, we decided that the thickener should be cornstarch or kudzu, added in a slurry after the milk, rather than starting with a traditional flour-based roux. The milk was rice dream, though soy milk would do equally well (not the vanilla flavor!) She prefers margarine to sauté her onions, but I remain faithful to butter. She had some nice new crop potatoes and frozen corn for the veggie contingent, along with thyme and bay. The salmon was already cooked, so it went in last.

She stopped me in the parking lot at pickup today--her family had gobbled it up, even her son, a mostly-vegetarian.