Creamy Corn Soup with Cheddar, Bacon, and Black Pepper
Nibbles and Bites Issue #41: Simple ways to use up your summer produce
Hi all,
Welcome to another week of Nibbles and Bites. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and all the wonderful produce that this time of year brings. If you end up with a surplus of something that you don’t know exactly how to use, reach out and I will send you some (hopefully clever!) recipe ideas.
This week I’ve been nibbling on an excess of corn on the cob and needed to find a clever way to use up the 10 ears of corn that had piled up in my fridge. We were planning on having a crowd over for dinner this weekend, but our plans quickly changed and the corn had already been purchased and was left sitting in my fridge so I got crafty and turned it into a luscious creamy corn soup that we’ll be eating for lunch for the next few days.
If anyone has a great recipe that incorporates half of a watermelon let me know, I need to work through that next!
Creamy Corn Soup with Cheddar, Bacon, and Black Pepper
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 medium yellow onion, small diced
5 cups of fresh corn kernels (from about 7 ears of corn)
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 scant tsp of white sugar
2 cups of chicken broth
½ cup of heavy cream
Ingredients for garnish
1 lb of bacon, cooked and roughly chopped
½ cup of cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp black pepper
Hot sauce, currently I am on a Zab’s Original kick
Instructions:
In a large pot, melt the butter and heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the diced onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes until translucent. Add the corn kernels and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to the pot of cooked corn and cook for an additional minute or so until the garlic becomes fragrant.
Add the chicken broth, heavy cream and white sugar to the pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for a minute or so and then turn the heat off. Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then place the soup into a blender and blend on high until creamy. You may need to blend the soup in batches. Taste, then season with salt and pepper if desired.
Divide the soup between serving bowls and top with chopped bacon, grated cheddar cheese, freshly ground black pepper and a few dashes of hot sauce. This soup is delicious served warm, but can also be served chilled or at room temperature.
A little behind the scenes look into how challenging it can be to get a decent well-lit shot with my little guy nosing his way into the frame. He loves to watch me dance around the kitchen and is always very interested in what I am making. I don’t blame him for following the scent of bacon and cheese around. Sometimes if he is lucky, it results in him sampling a small bite, but wishing him better luck next time.
Happy cooking,
Kristen