Corn, courgette + coriander soup
While cold soups win the day when it’s blistering, most of the soups I eat in summer are hot, but with a steer towards crunch and freshness. This one makes the most of the hero of the hour, papery husked corn on the cob, teaming it with chilli, green and yellow courgettes and crisp lettuce.
The result: a soup layered with texture and freshness that cooks instantly. It’s good cold too.
- Duration
- Difficulty
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 2 medium courgettes, or a few baby ones (about 500g)
- 4 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 4 ears of corn, kernels only
- a small bunch of fresh coriander, plus more to serve
- 1 green chilli
- 2 Little Gem lettuces, washed and shredded washed and shredded
- 1 unwaxed lime
Grate, fry + blitz the courgettes
Coarsely grate 1½ courgettes; you will use the remaining half later. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter or oil in a large, deep pan, then add the grated courgettes with a pinch of salt and cook for a few minutes, until they are soft and beginning to colour. Tip the lot into a blender and pulse a little, keeping a bit of texture. Put to one side.
Fry the onions + garlic
Heat 2 more tablespoons of oil or butter over a medium heat and fry the onion for about 5 minutes until beginning to soften, then add the garlic and cook for a further couple of minutes without browning. Add the courgette mixture and cook for another couple of minutes.
Blitz the corn, coriander, chilli + lettuce
Take a handful of the corn kernels and put to one side for later. Blitz the remaining raw kernels in the blender with up to 1 litre of water (depending on what consistency you like your soup to be), adding most of the coriander leaves (saving a few to finish) and all the stalks, the chilli and most of the shredded lettuce. Blitz until smooth.
Add corn to the courgettes + cook
Add the corn mixture to the pan with the courgettes and onions, then cook on a medium heat for another few minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan to stop the mixture sticking.
Fry remaining courgettes
Meanwhile, cut the remaining half courgette into thin coins. Heat a frying pan with the remaining tablespoon of oil or butter and fry the courgettes, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, until they start to brown on both sides. Push the courgettes to the side of the pan and add the handful of corn kernels. Continue to cook over a high heat until the corn starts to pop and blister. Remove from the heat and grate over the lime zest.
Season + serve
To serve, squeeze over the lime juice and season with more salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and finish with the remaining lettuce, coriander and the golden courgettes and corn.
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