Hurry up and get yourself some fresh corn. Make soup with it, grill it, freeze it to have some for fall. Before long, fresh corn will be gone from the market. I've bought lots of it, and one of my favourite ways to cook with it is to make soup. I make this corn soup at the end of every summer, and I love it. You could say it's my farewell to summer dish.
The soup features sweetcorn in a creamy broth with lots and lots of vegetables. Fresh herbs take it over the top, making it extra delicious. The bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, and parsley came from my herb garden. It's giving us a prodigious crop this year. We have more than enough for ourselves, for a neighbour and for co-workers. A great little garden, proving that even small growing spaces can give big results.
Fresh corn is high in vitamin C, very high in potassium, and it's responsible for significant antioxidant activity. So hurry up and enjoy some sweetcorn and some corn soup: it's one of the summer's fleeting pleasures.
This year I bought extra corn and froze the kernels to have for cooking during autumn.
Ingredients:
5 ears of corn
3 cups 2% milk
5 cups low sodium vegetable broth
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 large zucchini, chopped (don't peel)
3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
the leaves from 1(or even 2 if you like the stuff) nice size stick of rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
salt and pepper
3 scallions, chopped, use white and light green parts only
Directions:
- Remove the husks and the silk strings from the corn. Break the cobs in half. Stand the flat end of each half on a cutting board. Grab your knife in one hand and with the other hand hold the top of the corn cob firmly in order to steady it. Use the knife to scrape off the kernels, and keep rotating the cob until all the kernels are scraped off. With the flat end of the knife scrape off any bits of corn remaining on the cob. Alternately, you can use a vegetable peeler to scrape off the bits. Reserve the kernels and do not discards the corn cobs because they'll be put to use!
- Place the milk in a saucepan. Add the corn cobs. Bring the milk to a boil, lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, set the saucepan aside, but let the corn cobs steep in the milk.
- In a large Dutch oven heat the olive oil. Add the chopped onion, the red peppers, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring for about 5 minutes.
- Add the potatoes, zucchini, carrot, and corn kernels. Cook, stirring for 10 minutes.
- Add the broth, the milk, the corn cobs and all the herbs.
- Cook for about 30 to 40 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaves and corn cobs and discard them.
- Using an immersion blender puree the soup.
- Ladle into soup bowls, garnish with scallions if desired, and serve.
