This soup is one of my new favorites. Its from a really great book by the people up at Moosewood Restaurant called Moosewood Restaurant No-Fat Favorites. The first time I read through this book I marked so many pages that I still have about 25 recipes to try. But this was the first thing I made and it was delicious. This slightly spicy, chunky and flavourful is a snap to put together, especially if you have some frozen or canned sweet corn lying around. I had some of the season's last sweet corn from the farmers' market and cut it off the cob for that great fresh from field taste. Plus I had extra to make a little caramelized corn salsa-my own recipe, which I think really complemented the soup.
Southwestern Corn and Potato Soup
From the Moosewood No-Fat Cookbook. I doubled the recipe to serve 5-6 as a main course. The calorie content of the entire recipe as presented here is 1600 calories, it makes about 10 cups.
2 cups finely chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 small fresh chilies seeded and minced
1/2 tsp salt
6 cups vegetable stock
4 tsp ground cumin
4 cups peeled and diced sweet potato
1 medium red bell pepper, finely chopped
6 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
Procedure:
1. In a covered medium pot, simmer the onions, garlic, chile and salt in 2 cups of vegetable stock until the onions are soft. Stir in the cumin, then add sweet potatoes and the remaining stock.
2. Simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft, then add the bell pepper and corn and cook until all the vegetables are softened.
3. Blend about half the soup in a blender, or use an immersion blender. Heat again on low heat. Serve topped with caramelized corn salsa and tortilla chips (try the baked kind).
Caramelized Corn and Roasted Pepper Salsa
2 cups fresh corn kernels
1 medium-large tomato, finely diced
2 medium or 1 large red bell pepper
juice of 1 large lime
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground chipotle pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon turbinado or raw sugar (can substitute regular brown sugar)
Procedure:
1. Turn on the broiler in your oven. Place the bell peppers in a pan and put them in the oven under the broiler. Turn regularly and let blacken on the outside in places until they are well roasted. Remove from the oven and cover the pan for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, put the paprika, chipotle and salt in another baking pan with the corn kernels. Mix together, stick under the broiler and let roast, stirring regularly, until the corn begins to brown and the sugar caramelizes. Remove and turn off the broiler.
3. Take the cover off the pepper pan and remove the peppers. The trapped moisture should have loosened the skin so that you can easily peel it off. Do so, then cut the peppers open and de-seed them. Finely dice the pepper flesh, mix together with the corn, the finely diced tomato and the freshly squeezed lime juice. Stir and taste, add more paprika or chipotle or salt to taste.
4. Serve by itself with tortilla chips or on top of the corn chowder-with tortilla chips.
Labels: Main Courses, Vegetarian