Corn soups are wonderful, nourishing foods for a cold winter day and can provide a versatile foundation for experimenting with flavors and textures. Corn soup can be made to suit vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters.
Most basic corn soup recipes include potatoes and milk or cream and are called chowders. Variations from Alaska to Massachusetts and into the southern parts of the United States add fish, chicken and a variety of vegetables to create tastes unique to each region.
Basic Corn Chowder
Corn chowder is the launching pad for many other corn soup based recipes, and is easy to prepare. "The Martha's Vineyard Cookbook," second edition recommends using three cans of cream-style corn or half cream-style and half whole kernel in its basic corn chowder recipe. Other ingredients include 1/4 lb. diced salt pork, two chopped onions, 3 cups of diced potatoes, 3 cups whole milk and 2 tbsp. of butter. Season with salt and pepper.
Summer Corn Chowder
This recipe from "Soup, A Way of Life" by Barbara Kafka adds diced green and red bell peppers, four scallions, two ribs of diced celery and hot red pepper sauce to spice up the corn chowder recipe in Section 1. Kafka uses half milk, half heavy cream in her recipe to create a thicker base. She also omits the salt pork, making the dish suitable for vegetarians.
Vegan Corn Soup
The basic corn chowder recipe can be modified for vegans by eliminating the salt pork and using vegetable broth instead of milk and butter. Add minced garlic, cumin and chili powder for extra punch, and thicken the soup with 2 to 3 tbsp. of masa (corn flour).
Salmon and Corn Soup
A corn soup recipe from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Conservation adds salmon and bacon for a heartier meal. Riley Woodford uses 3 cups of chopped salmon and four to five slices of bacon along with two cans of whole kernel corn, a few chopped potatoes and one chopped onion to form the basic soup. Woodford then adds instant mashed potatoes and half a stick of butter to thicken the soup, and seasons it with pepper, salt or soy sauce and parsley flakes.
Chicken Corn Soup
Use boiled chicken, creamed and whole kernel corn, chicken stock and cream of celery soup to create a delicious chicken corn soup. Season with salt and pepper, and drop in dough balls made from flour, egg, salt and baking powder when the soup is nearly done, leaving it to simmer and thicken for 15 to 30 minutes.
Corn Stock
In "The Lake House Cookbook," published by Artisan in 1999, Trudi Styler and Joseph Sponzo recommend preparing a basic corn stock from 14 cleaned ears of fresh corn with the husks removed, four basil stems and four sprigs of tarragon. They use the light, sweet stock in place of lobster stock, and reduce it for a more intense flavor.
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