Ooh, I love me some alliteration now and then, and the name of this recipe -- Creamy Curried Crock-Pot Chowder -- can it get any more perfect?
This velvety, delicious chowder is comfort food for your soul, and for your heart. It's packed with veggies like carrots, onions, potatoes, and mushrooms, and with heart-healthy, fiber-rich black-eyed peas that add a hit of protein.
Like most of the recipes on this blog, this one requires very little prep. All you need to do is chop up a few veggies. All the action happens in the slow cooker itself -- no need to saute this or that on the stovetop first -- and you've got a delicious dinner done and ready to eat in less than three hours of mostly hands-free time.
One big reason I love cooking in the slow cooker is that it makes cooking without fats easy peasy while preserving the delicious flavors of your ingredients and, in fact, letting them blossom over the long, slow cooking times. I add some cashew cream to the chowder at the end, but if you want to leave it out and make this truly fat-free, do. In that case, though, puree half the chowder and add it back to the rest for a creamier texture. I love the cashew cream-- it adds richness while keeping this soup truly healthy, and it adds more good protein.
As my crockpot has gotten on in years, the knob that controls the temperature settings has broken off and vanished into no-man's land, which means the only setting I can cook with is "high". If you want to pop out of the house while the food gets done, by all means go ahead and cook on a lower heat setting-- you will need to add a couple more hours to your cooking time. You can also make this on the stove top, or in the pressure cooker (aren't you the smart one?) but be sure to adjust cooking times when you do. If you need some guidance, feel free to ask in a comment.
Hope you try!
Looking for more tasty vegan slow cooker stew recipes?
- Fat-free Cuban Black Bean Stew
- Slow Cooker Chana Masala
- Fat Free Crockpot Chili
- Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Dal
- Vegan White Bean Chili
Creamy Curried Crock-Pot Chowder with Black-Eyed Peas
Ingredients
- 16 oz frozen black-eyed peas (This is the kind that you get in the freezer section of your supermarket. If you can't find this, it is perfectly fine to make your own from dried peas, or use canned. Substitute with 2 14-oz cans of black-eyed peas, or ¾ cups of dried black-eyed peas, soaked and cooked until tender)
- 1 medium onion (finely diced)
- 2 medium carrots (finely diced)
- 2 medium potatoes (yellow or red, finely diced)
- 1 pound button mushrooms (or cremini mushrooms, diced)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 small bay leaves
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 3 cups vegetable stock (water is a fine substitute)
- ½ cup raw cashews (soaked for 30 minutes)
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 2 scallions (for garnish)
Instructions
- Blend the soaked cashews with ½ cup water until very smooth and set aside.
- In the slow cooker, on a high setting, combine the onions, garlic, carrots, thyme, and bay leaves. Stir to mix. Add some salt and ground black pepper. Cover the crock-pot and let the onions cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the potatoes, frozen black eyed peas and curry powder to the crock-pot. If you are using canned or cooked black-eyed peas, DO NOT add at this point. You will add them later in the process.*
- Add 3 cups of very hot water or vegetable stock to the cooker. Stir to mix everything, then cover the crockpot and let it all cook for the next two hours or until the veggies and black-eyed peas are really tender.
- Add the mushrooms and let the chowder cook for another 20 minutes.
- Add the cashew cream and stir to mix.** Allow the chowder to warm through and add more salt and pepper as required. Garnish with scallions before serving.
- *If you are using canned or cooked black-eyed peas, add them about an hour into the cooking time, when the veggies are nearly tender.
- **If you don't plan to use the cashew cream, remove a few ladles of the chowder before you add the mushrooms and blend into a puree. Add the puree back to the crockpot. Add the mushrooms, cover, and cook for 20 more minutes.
Nutrition
Moni
How can I make this without a slow cooker and still maintain the flavors you describe? Im a single person just graduated from college, trying to eat healtier after being diagnosed with colitis
Vaishali
Moni, carry on the same way as the crockpot recipe, but you'll need to monitor the pot closely to keep an eye on the water levels.
Denise Hill
Soooooo good! Made it with sourdough bread recipe. Wonderful for a cold winter day!
Ratna
Hi there Vaishali,
You mentioned curry powder - which one would this be? meat or fish?
Also - I wonder how you got that creamy colour, because I thought the addition of curry powder would lend a red or brownish tinge to the dish.
Vaishali
Hi there, Curry powder is sold as curry powder -- not specifically for meat or fish. And the amount of curry powder added is not enough to significantly change the color of the stew.
Ambica
what I love about black eyed peas is that you can cook them without soaking in a pressure cooker. Can't wait to try this with the cashew cream.
Ashwani Thapar
When the beans are hydrated, they literally double in size & softer to cook. Slow cooker cooking saves the nutrients, while pressure cooker kills them. The publicity of Pressure cooker when it’s introduced attracted most because of time saving at the cost of loosing food values. Over more than 50 years in every nook & corner of universe with newer versions like Istapot etc, I am sure created health problems for many. The higher pressure creates high temperatures inside for cooking.
Slow cooking at lower temperatures, do satiate tastebuds more.
My opinion & my experience. I have removed pressure cooker & microwave out of cooking tools.
About this recipe, it’s in works.
Last nigh I soaked 2 cups of Black Eye Peas for 6 hours.
This morning I placed them in slow cooker for 3.5 hours on high setting. At noon time. They were nicely soft.
Now I am ready to follow recipe from the beginning, with 1/2 the quantity of cooked BEP. The recipe mentioned 3/4 cup. I have 1 cup, so I will scale it by 25%.
And will review after dinner.
amarthya
The srew looks nice, but I'm here to thank you for the new word "alliteration".