Chilled Corn Soup for a Heat Wave

a tasty bowl of chilled soup.

The wonderful gal who makes that fabulous granola(!) at SIW passed this recipe along. Actually, she pulled the soup out of her fridge and made me try it. I am usually a little skeptical at cold soups (why not call them smoothies and drink them from a glass?), but this was GOOD. It capture the corniness of corn and is sweet and refreshing. Plus, it is delicious cold or hot- bonus for winter months when I'm craving summer (You do freeze HG's corn at the end of the season, right?- another post on that later).

annnnd you can find all of the fresh ingredients at the stand! Here ya have it:

Corn Soup with summer salsa

(hardly adapted by Jennifer Joyce)

prep time 15 minutes, cooking time 20 minutes
serves 6

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large leek, white part only, chopped (or a bunch of lovely delicate baby leeks from SIW)
1 waxy potato, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8-10 cobs of corn, kernels shaved off (whatever gets ya to 5-6 cups)
4 cups veggie stock (or chicken)

Summer salsa
1 red pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced

one scallion, snipped into small slices

Place the salsa ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, leek, potato, garlic and some salt and pepper. Cook 10 min or until softened. 

While this is cooking, I prepare my veggie bouillon (cheating with cubes instead of homemade stock but here's how I pump it up- add the cobs of 2 corn to the water that you're bringing to a boil. When the water boils, take out the cobs and drop in your bouillon cubes). Those cobs will delicately add even more corn flavor to the broth!

Add the corn and stock, cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Puree, in 2 batches, in a blender until smooth (be careful to keep that lid on tight, don't fill the blender too high and cover your hand with a dish towel, just in case!). I found that I had to blend for a lil longer than expected to get that silky smooth texture. Taste and adjust as needed. 

Return to the pan to reheat and taste for salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls or mugs with the salsa and a sprinkle of scallion. Note: For chilled soup refrigerate for at least 4 hours covered. I made it the night before and used it for lunches all week!