Soupe du jaune

It's officially Spring and the first Spring morning was all sunshine and promise- then the promise was delivered when the afternoon brought the gift of rain and the evening an impressive lot of stormy weather. So you can forgive yet another comforting meal-in-a-bowl type soup. Also, we had corn, pumpkin and cream cheese that needed eating, et voila! - a recipe is born! So I adapted a recipe from World Vegetarian Classics for corn chowder and made this rather wonderful roasted vegetable chowder - the roasting bringing out even more flavour and allows us to use heaps of garlic (entirely missing in the corn chowder recipe). The cream cheese with its richness and that touch of acidity complements and balances the sweetness of the vegetables. However, if dairy products are not for you, you can make the soup vegan by swapping the cream cheese and milk for soy milk.

Ingredients

1/2 Japanese pumpkin
3 carrots
3 parsnips
4 fresh corn cobs
1 L / 4 cups water (I may well have used more, so add more to get consistency that suits you)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 bay leaves
1 large or 2 small onions
1 bulb garlic (yes, a whole bulb, but don't worry, the roasting softens its flavour)
1/2 t dried sage
1 t fresh thyme leaves / 1/2 t dried thyme
3/4 c 200g cream cheese
1/2 c / 125ml milk
(or swap cream cheese and milk for 325ml unsweetened soy milk)

Recipe serves 6-8 (or more if served in mug-sized portions)

Directions

Preheat oven at 160 degrees celcius (my oven is quite hot but do keep temp lowish so veggies develop good flavour)

Spray a big baking tray with olive oil. Chop pumpkin into large slices (leave skin on - it will peel off easily once cooked) and place on the tray. Slice carrots in half lengthways. Dice a few pieces of carrot for chunky textures bits and set aside. Trim skinny parsnips ends off and set aside with carrot chunks. (seen here on plate with corn in a steamer. I also aded some chopped soft roasted bits, too, because I can't follow even my own recipes as I'm making them up).


Cut the bulbous tops in half and arrange these and the carrots around the pumpkin (or on another tray if they won't fit without overlapping). Place in oven and cook till vegetables are soft and roasted (with that nice caramelly chew on the pumpkin) but don't let them dry out or go hard and crunchy - we're making soup here!


While veggies are roasting, strip kernels from corn cob - like this: stand corncob upright (hold the top) and cut downwards with a sharp knife. It's a good idea to do this in a large bowl as they kind of ping off everywhere. Leave kernels in the bowl for now. To make the stock, place the stripped corn cobs and the bay leaves in a big pot. Sprinkle on a pinch of salt and cover with the water. Bring stock to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. At the same time, cook veggie chunks: In a steamer, place the corn corn kernels and twiggy parsnip and carrot ends and steam these as soup is boiling. Remove steamer once kernels and vegetables are tender.Discard the corn cobs and bay leaves.


Roughly chop roasted veggies, whizz in a blender/ food processor and add to the stock along with the remaining herbs. Add the cream cheese and milk to the soup mixture and stir / whizz with handheld blender till smooth and creamy. Return steamed veggie chunks to the soup. Reheat soup and add salt and pepper if desired.

Corn Chowder

Another great recipe from Celia Brooks Brown's 'World Vegetarian Classics' It's creamy, filling and of course very tasty! I liked adding the corn kernels at the end as they keep their colour, flavour and add some nice texture.
The only thing I did different was to add some grilled red pepper (capsicum) on top - because they were on special and I liked the colour!

So here is her recipe representing New England, USA (interestingly, representing NZ was also corn - corn fritters)

Corn Chowder
Serves 6

4 fresh corn-on-the-cob (ears of fresh corn)
500ml/ 16 fl oz/ 2 cups water
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 t dried sage, crushed
1 t fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 t dried thyme
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 celery sticks (stalks) chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
200g/ 7 oz/ generous 3/4 c cream cheese
125 ml/ 4 fl oz/ 1/2 c milk

In a large bowl, stand each corn-on-the-cob upright and strip the kernels by cutting downwards with a sharp knife, set aside. Place the stripped cobs in a large saucepan and add the water, a generous sprinkle of salt and the bay leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Discard the cobs and bay leaves.

Heat the oil in a separate saucepan. Add the onion and cook until translucent (soft and becoming see-through). Add the herbs and remaining vegetables and cook for about 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the cob stock and simmer until the potato is collapsing. Meanwhile, place the corn kernels in another saucepan amd pour in enough cold water to barely cover. Bring to the boil and cook for two minutes. Do not drain; set aside.

Add the cream cheese and milk to the soup mixture, then puree until smooth, ideally with a hand-held blender. Stir in the corn kernels with their cooking liquid. Give the chowder one more whizz if desired, to break up corn kernels slightly. Reheat and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.