Fresh Corn and Tomato Soup
Updated March 1, 2016
Yunhee Kim for The New York Times. Food stylist: Paul Grimes. Prop stylist: Megan Hedgpeth.
- Total Time
- About 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
4 corn cobs
5 cups water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 chopped sweet onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ cup cornmeal
2 chopped tomatoes
2 peeled, chopped potatoes
Chopped parsley
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
55 grams carbs; 339 calories; 8 grams monosaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 12 grams fat; 6 grams fiber; 48 milligrams sodium; 8 grams protein; 13 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Remove the kernels from the ears of corn and set aside.
- Step 2
Place the 4 stripped corn cobs in 5 cups water in a large pot (you can add a whole onion here – don’t bother to peel it – or a sprig of rosemary, tarragon or oregano, if you'd like). Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, then remove cobs and any onion or herbs.
- Step 3
In a skillet, heat olive oil. Sauté sweet onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add ¼ cup cornmeal and cook, stirring, about 5 minutes.
- Step 4
Add onion, garlic and cornmeal mixture to broth. Add tomatoes, potatoes and reserved corn. Cook until potatoes are fork tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Step 5
Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.
Private Notes
Comments
Don't skip the step of making the stock from the corncobs--this makes all the difference as far as flavor and depth are concerned. I've made vegetable stock for years every summer from the fresh corncobs from the farmstand, and I'll never go back to sodium-laden store-bought stock again--homemade stock is a thousand times more flavorful and healthy and easy to make. This is a great late-summer/early-autumn soup to make with the last of the farmstand produce.
The corn stock is fabulous! Also can add rind of Parmesan as noted in a few other soup recipes on this site.
Made this last night with organic stoneground cornmeal from Plymouth Plantation Grist Mill! Family loved it; surprisingly sweet (& definitely full 30 mins to prep & cook b/c of time needed for potato phase). Did add rosemary and unpeeled onion to stock; next time will remove peel b/c it gave brown color that I didn't want. 9 yo daughter requested soup for lunchbox today: total success!
The corncob stock really made this soup. I made it exactly as written - except only had fresh ripe cherry tomatoes in so far, so used enough to be "two tomatoes", and it was delicious. It's going into the summer rotation, and also onto our cabin vacation list.
Haven't made this yet, and while I generally like the simplicity of Bittman's recipes, this one stands out as problematic. Time, as others have noted is absurdly short, fifteen minutes? Two tomatoes and two potatoes? What kind of tomatoes and potatoes? Roma? Heirloom? And think about the wide variety of potatoes: Yukon? red? russet? These three are all widely differing in size and starch levels. I'm going to give this a try with some chopped roasted canned tomatoes and some reds...
I made this yesterday. It's very sweet! I went with Yukons and fire-roasted tomatoes. I also added a jalapeño to the saute and, as others suggested, a bit of chipotle. For the broth I added Mexican oregano. Those additions gave it a lot more depth of flavor and cut through the inherent sweetness of the corn.
I roasted the corn kernels in my air fryer for lots more depth and umami.