Refreshing. Filling. Elusive flavors. Piquant. Worth making.
This soup has a story. (Of course, nearly all my recipes have some kind of back story.) Some years ago my DH and I took a trip to the northeast during fall leaf season. Sadly, we didn’t see many leaves as one of the hurricanes slowed itself down through the entire northeastern states. In fact, the area was still having some rain and winds when we were there. We darted here and there in Western Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, in search of scenic roads where we hoped the winds hadn’t denuded the trees. Alas, we found very few leaves remaining on any of the trees. Don’t you just hate it when you make a special trip for something (fall leaves) and there aren’t any? I’d plotted the trip before we left, and we overnighted in Shelburne, Vermont. The B&B owner suggested a restaurant within walking distance of the hotel, The Bearded Frog. It was still cold and windy that night, so we trotted across to the restaurant and were glad for a warm, cozy table inside.
Our waitress greeted us with menus and mentioned the specials, which included a cold soup that the chef had just made (with the last of summer corn). The waitress raved about it, so I had to order some. I swooned over it, and eventually cornered the waitress again to ask if she knew what was IN the soup. She got a quizzical look on her face and said “I’ll find out.” Some time later she appeared with a piece of paper with the ingredients. Just the ingredients, but not any quantities. When I got home, I made it and knew I hadn’t quite gotten it right. Then I forgot about it.
So, here I am, many years later, during a very hot summer in Southern California, and I’ve been overdosing on cold soups. I can’t seem to get enough of them. As I write this, my friend Kit gave me a gigantic zucchini that’s sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to be made into another batch of Chilled Zucchini-Mint Soup. I’ll probably freeze some of this batch, as it’s a HUGE zucchini.
Anyway, I began searching through my soup recipes for more cold soups and ran across this one, that I’d never really tweaked correctly since I wasn’t sure of quantities. I had some notes I’d made, and had changed some of the quantities last time too. This time I didn’t have any canned creamed corn, so I just substituted more frozen corn for that part. Canned creamed corn doesn’t have any cream or dairy in it, it’s just cooked and processed to look like it does. I’ve included it in the below recipe because I think it’s a nice addition – but if you don’t have it, just use more frozen or fresh corn. I am good about figuring out (sometimes) what’s in a sauce or a dish when I eat at a restaurant, but I just couldn’t pinpoint ingredients in this soup, so I was so happy when the waitress was able to give me the ingredient list.
The chef never said she had cooked the onion, but raw onion in a cold soup has a bit of a bite, so I decided to cook the onion first. Everything else in the soup is raw. It takes a day for the flavors to meld, so do make it ahead – at least 8 hours or so, or preferably the day before you wish to serve it. It will keep for about a week. I haven’t tried to freeze it, but likely it would be fine. Do read my notes in the recipe about the pureeing of it – whether to strain or not. I didn’t because I was fine with including all that corn fiber in my servings. I used white corn, so the color of the soup is more off white than yellow. At the restaurant, way back, it was definitely yellow, so the chef had obviously used yellow corn. Your choice.
What’s GOOD: good, wholesome corn flavor, and if you don’t strain it, it has nice toothsome chewing, sort of. I loved the elusive flavors in this – there IS some heat from the jalapeno and ginger. It’s refreshing for sure. Easy. Altogether delicious, I think. It looks pretty too, if you use the garnishes. The chef had added lima beans. I didn’t have any of those, so didn’t use them.
What’s NOT: nothing, really. A lot of ingredients to gather up, but once in the blender, it’s pretty darned easy to make.
printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)
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Chilled Corn, Green Chile and Lime Soup
Recipe By: Ingredient list from Bearded Frog restaurant, Shelburne, VT
Serving Size: 8
1/2 cup red onion — chopped coarsely
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 whole jalapeno chile pepper — seeded, chopped
1/4 cup fresh ginger — chopped coarsely
4 cloves garlic — peeled
1 1/3 cups creamed corn — canned
1 pound frozen corn — defrosted
1 quart milk — or half and half or soy milk
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground cardamom
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup EVOO
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
GARNISH:
3/8 cup fresh corn
3/8 cup lima beans — frozen, defrosted (optional)
Fresh cilantro sprigs
May also drizzle a bit of EVOO on top and squeeze a tiny bit of fresh lime juice
NOTE: If you want a thin soup, strain the finished soup. If you prefer the corn solids and a thicker consistency, just puree the heck out of the soup until it’s nearly a liquid. It never quite liquefies, but it’s very edible that way. If you have an old blender, it may not puree as well as the newer, high speed ones capable of liquefying just about anything.
1. In a skillet, heat a small jot of olive oil and add the chopped onion. Saute over low heat until the onion is thoroughly soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
2. Combine all the soup ingredients (including the cooked onion) in a blender and puree until smooth. Refrigerate the mixture overnight.
3. Strain the soup of any solids and taste for seasoning. (Straining the soup is optional.)
4. Serve with a few corn kernels sprinkled over the top plus lima beans and cilantro. May also drizzle the top with EVOO and a tiny bit of lime juice.
Per Serving: 356 Calories; 20g Fat (48.8% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 17mg Cholesterol; 190mg Sodium.
hddonna
said on August 24th, 2017:
Goodness, Carolyn, I just can’t keep up with all the tempting recipes you’ve been posting! Love the cold soups, and this one is going on the list of to-tries. That Sweet Fresh Corn Soup with Mushrooms in the “You might also like” suggestions looks appealing, too. I have your avocado soup on the list for this week already–I’ve done that one before and liked it a lot.
I just read a “make gazpacho without a recipe” post on Epicurious, and it occurred to me that that would be a perfect way to use up leftover tomatoes. There always seem to be a few slices or odd bits left after a meal, and I started collecting them in a container in the fridge. I’m the only one here who really likes gazpacho, so it doesn’t take much to whiz up a pint of it for myself, and it doesn’t matter that the tomatoes have been refrigerated–it just means I can eat some right away and save some for another meal. It worked great on my first try and I’ll be doing it regularly now.