Creamy Corn Soup with Scallops

Creamy corn soup

There isn’t much in this world that SCREAMS summertime than fresh, sweet corn.  I love corn.  I am telling you, I LOVE me some CORN!  It’s been a great deal recently around these parts and I had read a great recipe on Serious Eats about how to make a really good, velvety, creamy corn soup without having to add cream or butter.  It involved a pressure cooker, and I don’t use my pressure cooker very much so I had to give it a try.

Don’t go away just because I said “pressure cooker” — stick with me even if you don’t have one!  Seriously!

Here’s the thing — it’s vegetarian, easily made vegan, creamy, delicious, and fantastic.  FANTASTIC.  

I wasn’t sure I could pull off just handing my boyfriend a big bowl of sweet corn soup by itself (even though I could have just eaten nothing but this for a week), so I got into the freezer and pulled out my last couple servings of really delicious maine scallops that I had purchased from GetMaineLobster.com.  They’re out of my range at full price, but I caught them on super sale and buy one get one free, so we’ve enjoyed fresh-frozen scallops around here for a few months.  Turns out, when you add some fresh elements (tomatoes!) and some sweet delicious seafood to corn soup, it turns into something super-splurgy.

Whether you decide to keep this corn soup completely vegan or vegetarian, or serve it as a side dish or opener with another meal, I can tell you that even if you only worry about the corn part of this recipe you’re going to get a lot of compliments and folks banging down your door for the recipe.  Enjoy a taste of summer!!

To make this soup vegetarian/vegan, leave out the seafood and instead of using butter to sautee the shallots go ahead and use vegetable oil, and use vegetable broth.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, it would be my assumption (I haven’t done this yet) that you could cook the soup in a regular stock pot or dutch oven, just increasing the cooking time.

Creamy corn soup
Creamy Corn Soup with Scallops
Print Recipe
A creamy, light but hearty soup that gives you a sweet taste of summer whenever you make it. You can just make the "corn soup" part of this recipe and then dress it up any way you like, use it as a sauce for something else, or just eat it straight. To make this recipe vegetarian, leave out the seafood and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. To make it vegan, saute veggies in vegetable oil instead of butter or ghee. I made my soup in a pressure cooker. I'm fairly sure you could also just make it in a regular stock pot, but you will need to increase the actual cooking time of the soup by 4x or so. Your mileage may vary.
Servings
6
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings
6
Cook Time
1 hour
Creamy corn soup
Creamy Corn Soup with Scallops
Print Recipe
A creamy, light but hearty soup that gives you a sweet taste of summer whenever you make it. You can just make the "corn soup" part of this recipe and then dress it up any way you like, use it as a sauce for something else, or just eat it straight. To make this recipe vegetarian, leave out the seafood and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. To make it vegan, saute veggies in vegetable oil instead of butter or ghee. I made my soup in a pressure cooker. I'm fairly sure you could also just make it in a regular stock pot, but you will need to increase the actual cooking time of the soup by 4x or so. Your mileage may vary.
Servings
6
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings
6
Cook Time
1 hour
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
Corn Soup:
  1. As prep, finely chop your shallot and garlic, shuck the corn, and start to heat the pressure cooker vessel over medium heat.
    Creamy corn soup
  2. Add butter or oil to the pressure cooker pot, and on low begin to sweat the chopped shallots and garlic. Stir frequently and remove from the heat if they start to caramelize.
    Creamy corn soup
  3. While the aromatics are sweating, using a sharp knife carefully cut the kernels of fresh corn off the cobs. Set aside in a big bowl until all the kernels are removed. Break the cobs in half.
    Creamy corn soup
  4. When the aromatics are done cooking and the kernels are removed, add all of the kernels plus all of the corn cobs to the pressure cooker. Add a little bit of salt and white pepper, and one quart of stock (chicken or vegetable), and the bay leaf. Seal pressure cooker and bring to high pressure; cook for 15-20 minutes.
    Creamy corn soup
  5. Release the pressure using the quick-release valve and uncover the corn and cobs. I knew I would not be serving mine right away so I let mine cool down to a manageable temperature -- then remove the cobs and bay leaf.
    Creamy corn soup
  6. This is an optional step, but I chose to "milk" my cobs because I am not the greatest at getting all the kernels off. Using the back of a knife, scrape down the cobs (into a bowl) and get all the juice and creamy bits of corn that are still on the cob. Add this back to the pot, and discard your corn cobs.
  7. Now, we blend. I used an immersion blender. If you have a blender with a large pitcher/jar, that will probably work even better. Working in batches (with a regular blender), blend the corn mixture until it is completely smooth. This might take multiple blends, depending on how good your blender is. Add more stock or water if necessary to make it smooth. Taste for salt and pepper and add if needed.
    Creamy corn soup
  8. Strain it through a fine mesh strainer if you're really going for super-velvety. Otherwise, when it's as smooth as you'd like it, you can either warm and serve it at that point or package it up for serving later.
    Creamy corn soup
The Scallops:
  1. Thaw scallops if frozen, and pat them dry on all sides on paper towels. Season both sides with salt and black pepper.
    Creamy corn soup
  2. Working in small batches, sear the scallops: in a SCREAMING hot pan (I like cast iron) put a little butter, ghee or oil, and when the fat shimmers in the bottom of the pan add the scallops. Cook them about 3 minutes on each side, or until each side browns. Try not to overcook them.
    Creamy corn soup
  3. To plate, add scallops to a shallow bowl, pour creamy corn soup into the bowl but do not cover the scallops. Sprinkle with chives and halved cherry tomatoes.
    Creamy corn soup
  4. Eat, brag about how there's no cream or milk (or butter, if you're making it vegan) in the corn soup and receive much praise from the folks you're feeding. Enjoy!
    Creamy corn soup
Recipe Notes

This creamy corn soup is easily made vegetarian or vegan by substituting veggie oil for the butter, and veggie stock for the chicken stock, and eliminating the meat.  If you aren't a fan of, or don't eat seafood, pair this with a loaf of crusty bread, other summer vegetables, some chicken, or use it as a sauce.  There are a ton of possibilities for this recipe, and I hope you enjoy and explore many of them!

PS:  I even like it cold.

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