Come midsummer, you’ll find sweet corn on my dinner table almost every night of the week. And one of my favorite ways to serve it is in a bowl of soup. You don’t have to do much to get a decent bowl of corn soup at the peak of corn season.
Each kernel is packed full of flavor and bursting with sweetness. Still, if you take an extra step or two, you can take that decent bowl and turn it into a memorable summer soup. It’s really all about extracting as much flavor as you can from the corn, and what many cooks overlook is the cobs.
If you are cutting those kernels off the cob and tossing them into the trash, you’re missing out on a ton of corny goodness. First, after you’ve cut the corn off the cobs, it’s important to scrape the cobs with the back of a knife to get every bit of corn pulp and corn milk out of them. For this week’s Creamy Corn and Poblano Soup, the cobs are simmered with the broth, combining it with the corn kernels and pulp and puréeing in a blender.
Simmering the cobs doesn’t take much time, but it definitely dials up the flavor. Once the corn is puréed, I like to pass it through a sieve for an extra-smooth texture, but if you like your soup on the more rustic side, you can skip this step. I add cream to this soup which, admittedly, gives it an ultra-creaminess that borders on decadent.
If you’d like to keep your soup on the leaner side, you can substitute the cream with more broth. What takes this soup over the top are the garnishes. Roast.
