When you think summer, you definitely don’t think of eating hot soup, but I was looking for a new way to eat all of the corn I’ve been enjoying this season, because you can only eat so much corn salad, and this corn soup is definitely a nice, fresh summer soup!

You may also think it’s weird to eat avocado in a soup, or warm avocado in general (even though jessica eats baked avocado) but it actually works really well. you don’t actually cook it, and the creamy texture with the brothy soup, the crunch of the corn, and the crispy tortillas are an awesome combination!

You can make this with chicken stock, too, but I had some homemade vegetable broth in my freezer. I really don’t like the boxed kind, so I always try to have some stocked (heh) away. Instead of throwing away the ears of corn after cutting off the kernels, I simmering them in the soup; not really necessary, but it adds nice depth of flavor.

Did I mention how easy this is to make? Because the hardest part is figuring out how to get the corn to not fly all over the place when you’re cutting it. And it takes maybe 20 minutes from start to finish, including the chopping and dicing. So there!

Summer Corn Soup from Ruhlman

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, small diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked hot paprika or ground chipotle, or more to taste
• salt to taste
• 1 quart homemade vegetable broth
• 1 plum tomato, diced
• kernels from 2 ears of corn (keep the ears)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• lime juice to taste
• 2 avocados, large dice
• 3 corn tortillas, baked crispy
• cilantro to taste

Directions:

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the oil in a large pot over low heat. Add salt and spices.
2. When the onion is translucent, add the broth—and, if you want extra corny flavor, the ears of corn —and bring it to a simmer.
3. Add the tomatoes and kernels,  bring back to a simmer, and that’s it! Soup is ready to eat, it just needs some dressing up. Oh, discard the whole corn ears, too.
4. Serve soup in bowls (duh) with a squeeze of fresh lime juice, garnished with diced avocados, tortillas and cilantro.