An Easy Winter Soup

We eat a lot of soup, and this one always goes over well at our house. It’s a corn chowder, and I generally use this recipe, with a few minor changes.

I don’t use the butter, and often use more garlic. The thyme and parsley are dried, because it’s winter and also because I haven’t planned ahead. I use chicken stock, rather than vegetable, although I’ve made it with vegetable stock and it’s delicious that way, too. More potatoes. Frozen corn (again: winter, poor dinner planning).

This time, I made a topping for the soup, and I want to always have it that way in the future. The idea for the topping came from Sarah Britton’s blog, My New Roots. I can’t find the specific post–she has so many recipes! And I know this idea is from years ago.

As an aside, all the recipes I’ve tried from her blog have been really good. I used her idea as a template, but not an actual recipe, for this topping.

Here are the ingredients, adapted for the person who be neither shucking corn nor storming the grocery for fresh herbs tonight:

2 tablespoons oil

1 onion, diced, or more than one, if you want

4 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 cup flour

2 quarts chicken stock

2 cups heavy cream

4-6 potatoes, depending on size, peeled and diced. In this last batch, I used approximately a bag of mini potatoes. I think a bag is about a pound and a half.

4 1/2 cups frozen corn

1-2 tablespoons dried parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

I follow the same basic directions, with small changes. I don’t add the cream with the potatoes, because I don’t want to boil the cream. I’m superstitious about doing that.

The short version is to saute the onion & garlic in the oil for a few minutes, then stir in the flour. Pour in the stock, and that’s when I throw in the herbs, too. And the potatoes. Crank it up to boil hard until the potatoes are falling apart, then add the frozen corn, bring it back to a boil, and let it cook a few minutes. Only after everything is cooked do I add the cream, turn down the heat, and simmer just a little while to let it all meld together. Maybe 20 minutes? That sounds right.

The topping I made has raw garlic in it, so it’s definitely not for a romantic evening. It is so, so powerfully garlicky. And delicious. I live with a provisional faith in the healing powers of garlic, and I think I feel less like I have a cold after eating this for a couple of days.

The topping is about 1 part garlic to 5-6 parts parsley, although you could have more garlic if you want. Chop both very finely, put in a bowl, and add salt to taste. Then, just enough olive oil to make it the consistency of thick pesto. I also added red pepper flakes to mine. You can do this with cilantro instead of parsley, too, and it’s really good to plop onto soup, or if you’ve got a grain & vegetable bowl you can put it on top of that, or on whatever bread you’re eating with your meal.

Hope you have a good weekend, and stay warm.