Corn Soup from Coppa's Brian Rae

Don’t let corn season slip away without having your fill. The plentiful local crop, which you can find in abundance at farm stands and farmer’s markets, shines in this chilled corn soup from Brian Rae, Executive Chef at Coppa. This recipe is perfect for lunch or dinner — and about as easy as can be — so you can make a batch and make the most of the seasonal bounty. Up the (optional) fresno pepper to add some heat or skip the yogurt for a vegan version.

Ingredients

for the soup:

8 ears corn, cleaned
1 cup leeks, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1/4 cup scallions, sliced
1 teaspoon fresno pepper, minced (optional)
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1.5-2 qts vegetable stock or water
1/2 cup greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper

for the tomatoes

2 cup baby heirloom tomatoes, split
1 cup corn, cut off cob
2 tablespoon basil, sliced thin
2 tablespoon EVOO
1 teaspoon lime juice
Salt and pepper

assembly

6 cup corn soup, chilled
2 cup tomato salad
8 tablespoon Greek yogurt
4 teaspoon chili-sesame oil (optional)

Directions

for the soup

On a cutting board, stand corn up on one of its ends and carefully slice the corn off the cob. Save corn and cobs.
In a medium size sauce pot over low heat sweat out the leeks in olive oil for 5 minutes.
Add the celery, scallion, fresno pepper (optional) and garlic. Continue to sweat over low to medium heat for another 10 minutes. Vegetables should get soft but should not pick up much color.
Add corn and 1.5 qts vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer.
Place cobs in pot as well. Continue simmering for 10 minutes.
Remove cobs from pot. Gentle scrap them with a knife so that the scrapings go back into the pot. Discard the cobs.
Puree the soup with the yogurt, lime salt and pepper. Check seasonings.
Strain through a fine strainer.
Cool.

for the tomatoes