Thick, creamy & dairy-free!
If we had a secret weapon – this would be it! This recipe ‘wows’ people every single time. It’s thick, rich, and decadent. We’ve made it a few times now with a few minor variations, and it’s worked out great every time – we hope you like it!
Dairy-free Seafood Chowder
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This one-pot wonder satisfies any creamy chowder cravings you may be having this winter... and its dairy-free - bonus!
Author: Lyndsay & Nick
Recipe type: dairy-free, gluten-free
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp ghee, earth balance, or your favorite butter-like oil (... or butter if you can tolerate some dairy)
- 1 onion, chopped
- ½ tsp celery seed
- 1-2 bay leaf
- 2 tsp dill, dried (4tsp if using fresh)
- 1 tsp sea salt or 1½-2 tsp Herbamare
- ¼ tsp pepper, fresh ground (or more to taste)
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled & cut into 1in cubes
- 1 cup water, no salt chicken or seafood broth
- 2 cans coconut milk, but just mostly the cream (reserve the water for a smoothie)
- 2-3 cups fresh or frozen seafood combination (skinless haddock fillet pieces, wild salmon fillet pieces, shrimp, lobster claws with liquid, scallops, crab)
- 1½ cup frozen corn
- lemon wedges or parsley, as garnish (optional)
Instructions
- In a large pot, melt ghee or oil over medium heat.
- Add in onions, herbs, salt & pepper. Sautee for 5 mins, until onions are browning.
- Add potatoes & sautee for 5 mins more. (feel free to add a bit of the water to prevent potatoes from sticking to the pot)
- Increase heat to high, add 1 cup water/broth & bring to a boil.
- Turn heat down slightly & boil potatoes, stirring often, until they reached desired tenderness (about 10 mins)
- Turn heat to low, add frozen corn & coconut cream and stir well. Add some coconut water or more water/broth if you prefer a slightly thinner chowder.
- Add in seafood & fish, and cook for another 5 mins, or until the fish is flaky, stirring often.
- Add salt & pepper to taste, and remove bay leaf.
- Serve with lemon wedges, fresh chopped parsley, and fresh ground pepper, as garnish if you'd like.
this was a real crowd pleaser. I’m making it for a 2nd time and expecting equally WOW approval.
Great! This is one of our favorite recipes & we especially love to make it for guests visiting the east coast.
This is one of our favourite recipes too. Enjoy!
Wonderful Chowder
We made this with scallops, haddock and shrimp for Christmas dinner and it was simply amazing. We served it with gluten free rolls to dip in the incredibly flavorful liquid and everyone would not stop commenting on the taste. The coconut milk, which we used all of (the cream and the liquid) took on the seafood flavors beautifully. Thank you for such a savory and memorable Christmas meal!
Thanks for the great comment Bette! We have had the same “rave reviews” when we serve this chowder to others. Happy New Year!
I made this chowder recently and it was a winner. I used large shrimp, lobster tails (it was New Year’s Eve after all) and haddock. I thinned it out with extra soup broth because it was rather thick. I added some hot sauce for some zing. Next time I will try fresh dill instead of dried because I think the taste could be fresher. I served it with fresh (home made) gluten free bagets and a lovely meal was created. Thank you for this recipe. It was fast and simple, quite nice. Sheila, Ottawa
That sounds delicious, Sheila! I’m glad that you made it your own and that you enjoyed the recipe! I agree that fresh dill is the best. Sometimes we add a pinch or two more of the dried dill, depending on if we bought it from a store or grew it & dried it ourselves, as drying it ourselves tends to be a bit more flavourful so we don’t need to add too much more.
This is super fast and amazingly tasty! It saved us when we needed a rapid alternative to a Christmas turkey dinner.
That’s so great to hear! This is a great meal to serve to a crowd.
I am sensitive to coconut. any other ideas for dairy free chowder
You could try using cashew milk. It tends to have less of a flavour than almond milk. If you do try it, let us know how it works out!
You could try using homemade or unsweetened cashew milk. It tends to have less of a flavour than almond milk. If you do try it, let us know how it works out!
Absolutely wonderful. I hadn’t realized we had run out of celery seed, so I pulled all the leaves from a bag of celery and chopped them up. Desperate times and all that! We used some leftover king crab, steelhead and cod. Blew my mind. Even our 2 year old who’s not a seafood fan yet asked for the big soup spoon. Thank you for this recipe! I’m going to make sure to keep it on hand for special occasions!
I’m so glad you love this recipe! It is surprising how the little ones & people who generally aren’t seafood lovers become a fan of this soup. Way to make it your own with the seafood & fish you added!