Tomato Clam Chowder for #SoupSaturdaySwappers

Welcome to the our first Soup Saturday Swappers for 2021; our event is led by Wendy of A Day in the Life on Farm! Are you interested in joining this great group of Soup Swappers? Request to join our Facebook group here. 

This month Karen from Karen's Kitchen Stories invited us to make favorite childhood soups. What a fun theme! It gave me a chance to walk down memory lane with my sister about what we grew up eating, and then dig through my mom's old cookbook that I inherited after she passed away many years ago. We agreed we couldn't remember that many soups that we associated with childhood, but we definitely remember that she made chowders often enough that we remembered it. And we remember Skippers (a seafood fast food restaurant) being a family favorite where everyone would get warm bowls of thick chowder, and we for whatever reason almost always added ketchup to it! 

So with chowder and ketchup in mind, I stumbled across a Tomato Clam Chowder recipe in her cookbook, and knew I didn't need to look any further than that. This was a wonderful soup. It is warm, cozy, packed with tender veggies and bites of clam and it was the perfect meal on a cool fall day. You could add some lovely crusty bread to round this out, to sop up that tasty broth with but we didn't think it really needed anything! It was simple and delicious. My favorite combination. 

Come see all of our childhood inspired soups!

• Alphabet Soup from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chicken Soup with Danish Flour Dumplings from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Clean the Refrigerator Soup AKA Garbage Soup from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mom's Quick Alphabet Soup from Sneha's Recipe
• Potato and Spinach Soup from Magical Ingredients
• Ramen Afternoons: From Powdered Broth to Simmered Trotters from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Rotisserie Chicken Alphabet Soup from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Tomato Clam Chowder from Making Miracles
• Vegetable Pastina Soup from Palatable Pastime

Tomato Clam Chowder

Ingredients
1 slice bacon, diced into small pieces
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 (8-oz) can clam broth
2 (6.5-oz) can minced clams (with juice)

1 cup seafood broth
2 TBS quick barley
1 (14-oz) can diced tomatoes
2-3 TBS fresh parsley, chopped 
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf

Directions

1. In a soup pot or 5-quart dutch oven, sauté the bacon over medium to medium-high heat until well browned. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon and set aside.
2. Add in the chopped vegetables - celery, carrots, and onion. Sauté for about 5-8 minutes until they begin to brown. Add in all remaining ingredients, along with the reserved bacon, and bring to a low simmer. Cover and simmer 20-30 minutes, until the vegetables and barley are tender.
3. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Discard bay leaf before serving.