Recipe: Sweet Corn and Spicy Pepper Soup

Ah…I love fall.  Want to know why?  Aside from sweaters, hot cider, hot chocolate, and beautiful colors throughout the landscape, autumn ushers in the official start of soup season.  What makes soup season even more exciting and interesting this year is the fact that I now get a bin of fresh, organic, and local produce from my CSA…giving me a lot of creative license when it comes to cooking up some sort of soup.

Recently, thanks to Pinterest, I found a recipe that really caught my attention.  Even more so because, save for the parsley, some spicy peppers and the avocado, I had everything else from my CSA bin.  It was as if I were being told to make it.  The original recipe turned up on a page called Naturally Ella, but, as I most often do, I changed the recipe slightly as far as how much of something got added and so forth.  The soup yields 4 delicious servings and it is very low in calories for being so creamy.  In fact, only one serving will set you back 231 calories.  And that’s with the avocado as garnish (it’s a healthy belly-flattening fat!).

So, below is my modified recipe.  This is gluten-free, low calorie, and completely vegan as well.

Recipe: Sweet Corn and Spicy Pepper Soup

Servings: 4
Time: Prep 10 minutes; Cook 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 ears sweet corn
• 2 jalapeño peppers, seeds removed
• 1 medium red pepper
• 2 small serrano peppers, seeds removed
• ½ medium red onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2-3 cups veggie broth
• juice from one lime
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup minced flat leaf parsley
• ½ cup unsweetened almond milk, optional
• 1 avocado

Directions:

In a medium pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.

Dice onion and peppers, add to pot.  Cook until onion is translucent, 4-5 minutes

Remove corn from cob and add to cooked peppers/onion mixture.  Continue to cook for 2-3 more minutes.

Stir in 2 cups veggie broth and salt, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Let cook for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from heat and using either an immersion blender or regular blender, puree soup.

Return to heat and stir in cilantro, heavy cream, and more veggie broth if needed.  Heat for 1-2 more minutes over medium low.  Taste and add more salt if needed.

To serve, slice avocados and add to top of soup.

~*~*~

This soup was a delicious blend of sweet and spicy with the fresh combination of sweet corn and the spicy peppers.  The spice didn’t overwhelm the rest of the meal.  It was just the right level of heat.  Even my roomie, who is a spice-wimp loved the level of heat in this soup.  If you do not like heat, remove seeds from jalapeños and serranos as much as possible.  I did this just because I knew my roommate would be eating it as well as me.  But if you love a hit of spice in your soup, leave the serrano and jalapeño seeds in!

In the end, you are left with a creamy, delicious soup that is not just filling…but healthy too.

It’s soup season, friends.  Let’s get that soup on!