Manhattan Clam Chowder

Happy World Blood Donor Day and National Blood Donor Week! The theme of our newsletter this month was "blood" in honour of these two holidays - I was going to right about hypertension (high blood pressure) as it is a very common nutrition-related concern these days, but it turns out that you can have very high blood pressure (the upper limit is 180/100 - normal is 120/80 or lower) and you can still donate blood! So I decided to write about the issue of iron-deficiency anemia instead. Every year, Canadian Blood Services rejects 10% of its potential female donors and 0.5% of its potential male donors due to low hemoglobin (read: iron) levels.

Females have higher iron needs than males due to menstrual losses - they need 18 mg per day whereas men only need 8 mg; post-menopause, a woman's iron needs decrease to 8 mg/d also. Women are also at higher risk for iron deficiency because they are more likely to engage in behaviours that make it difficult to meet their iron needs, such as restricting their intake to lose weight or becoming vegetarian (iron from animal sources is more readily absorbed than iron from plant sources).

The most common advice that people hear when their iron stores are low is to "Eat red meat." Although beef is a good source of iron containing 2-3 mg of iron per 2½ oz (depending on the cut), duck has it beat with 2-7 mg of iron per 2½ oz (more iron can be found in the dark meat). Oysters and clams have even more iron, with 3-9 mg and 10-21 mg of iron per 2½ oz, respectively (which is why they have a distinctive metallic taste). So, instead of highlighting a beefy recipe for this month, I chose to make Manhattan clam chowder.


I grew up eating creamy New England clam chowder (usually from a can, or at Red Lobster) as opposed to its tomato-based cousin from Manhattan. From a nutrition standpoint, however, the latter is better for you – sure the clams pack in a lot of iron in both versions, but Manhattan clam chowder foregoes all the saturated fat in cream in favour of vitamin C-rich tomatoes, which conveniently facilitates the absorption of iron. The potatoes add in a lot of vitamin C too. You can find packages of frozen or fresh clam meat in the seafood section of the grocery store – it has a much better texture than canned.

My New England clam chowder-loving siblings enjoyed the soup, despite the fact that I used sodium-free chicken broth and canned tomatoes and didn't add any salt. I tried to trick the seafood-hating B. into eating the soup by not telling him what it was, but unfortunately it's difficult to hide 1 lb of clams... he ate the soup, but picked out all the clams and put it in my bowl :( (I thought I had a chance because he likes Clamato!)

Manhattan Clam Chowder
Adapted from EatingWell
Makes about 12 cups

• 1 tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil
  
• 1 large onion, diced
  
• 1 bulb fennel, cored and finely diced, plus ¼ cup (60 mL) chopped feathery fronds
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) dried thyme leaves
  
• 3½ cups (875 mL) diced potatoes, preferably red-skinned
  
• 1 28 oz (796 mL) can of diced tomatoes
  
• 4 cups (1 L) of reduced-sodium chicken broth (or water)
  
• ¾ cup (185 mL) white wine
  
• ½ tsp (2 mL) freshly ground pepper
  
• 1 lb (454 g) fresh or defrosted clam meat

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, diced fennel, potatoes, garlic and thyme. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until just soft and beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes.
   
2. Stir in tomatoes, broth, wine, pepper and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
   
3. Stir in clams, any clam juice and the fennel fronds. Add additional broth or water if necessary. Cook until just heated through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Nutrition Info (per cup): 119 calories, 1 g fat (0.2 g saturated), 12 mg cholesterol, 17 g carbohydrate (2 g fibre, 3 g sugar), 8 g protein, 226 mg sodium, 7 mg iron, 21 mg vitamin C. An excellent source of vitamin B₁₂ and potassium. A good source of vitamin B₆, copper, manganese and selenium.