I’m a huge soup fan. Chunky, smooth, creamy, or noodle-y, come wintertime, I want all the soups, all the time. Thankfully, not all soups take hours to make. This corn soup, thickened with a bit of tofu and seasoned with sweet and mellow white miso, is a fast favorite once the temperature starts to dip.
my superpowerful, tiny vitamix s30. i love this guy!
I love this soup mostly because of the pairing between sweet corn and miso, but also because of the textural contrast added by the crunchy tofu, and, of course, the tofu itself! Oh, how I love tofu in soup.
It’s one of my favorite tricks, using tofu to thicken soup. Silken tofu adds body and creaminess without cream. It’s funny because I’m not remotely vegetarian or vegan, but after the fact, I figured out this soup was a bunch of those catchphrase foods trends that are so hot right now: vegan, gluten-free, and nut-free.
Mike: That was pretty tasty.
Me: Right!? And so easy! Only corn, onions, tofu and miso!
Mike: Wait – what? I ate vegan food and liked it?!
Me: Huh, it is vegan. Funny!
I may not be on the up and up with healthy food trends, but I do love something that seems to be quite popular in the kitchen: blenders. I use mine mainly for soups, dressings, and smoothies. My tiny (compared to the behemoths that are the regular Vitamixes) S30 personal-sized Vitamix is perfect for making soup for two. It’s super powerful and even heats soups up while you blend. It’s truly one of my favorite kitchen appliances and in the spirit of the holiday season I’m giving one away!
Miso Corn Soup Recipe
serves 2-3Soup
- oil
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 2 cups corn (I used frozen corn)
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1/4 package silken tofu, about 1/4 – 1/3 cup
- 1 1/2 tablespoon white miso paste, or to taste
- freshly ground pepper, to taste
Crispy Tofu Croutons
- tofu, as needed
- oil, preferably safflower, sunflower, or grapeseed
- salt, if desired
Garnish
- sliced green onions
- crispy tofu croutons (recipe below)
- flaky sea salt
- red pepper flakes
In a skillet, heat up a small bit of oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté, stirring, until soft and translucent. Add the corn and warm through briefly. Remove the onion and corn from the heat and place in a blender with the chicken broth, tofu, and miso paste. Blend until smooth and hot if using a Vitamix. Taste and adjust the thickness of your soup based on preference. If you like a thicker soup, add more tofu, if you like a thin soup, use some broth to thin it out. If needed, return the soup from the blender to the skillet and heat up until steaming.
Make the tofu croutons: Cut the remaining tofu up into 2 cm cubes. Set on paper towels, flipping so all sides drain. In a skillet, heat up a generous amount of oil over medium high heat. Fry the tofu, flipping as needed, until golden brown and crisp, 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels and season with salt, if needed.
Taste and adjust seasoning with miso and freshly ground pepper. Serve hot with sliced green onions, crispy tofu, sea salt and red pepper flakes. Enjoy!
WIN ME!!!
Giveaway: I paired up with Vitamix to give away one Vitamix S30! I absolutely love mine and know you will love yours too!
Enter: To enter, leave a comment below with your favorite soup memory. I want to hear ALL the details! I’ll randomly choose a winner and contact them by email. Open to Canadian and US Residents only. (Sorry international friends!) Contest ends December 20th at 12AM PST. Good luck!
Update: Congrats Jenna @ Just J.Faye, you’ve won yourself a brand new Vitamix! Happy Christmas! Keep an eye out for an email from me!
My favorite soup memory is from when I was sick a couple of years ago. I have an aversion to canned chicken noodle soup. I don’t care if I am sick or not there is no way you are getting me to eat that. So I was laying around miserable when my daughter, who was 12 at the time, set before me a steaming bowl of noodle soup she had made herself. Now, I realized that we had been giving her free reign of the kitchen for a while..her father cooked with her, I baked with her…for the most part. But this was such a surprise. It was delicious and I swear I was better within a day. Probably an exaggeration in my mind but definitely something I now look forward to when I am sick. I love her soups.
Love that this soup is vegan :) If I had to pick just one favorite soup memory, it would have to be during my childhood, when I was sick and stayed home from school the countless times I had the flu, strep, a bad cold. My mom gave me comforting Chicken n’ Stars (when condensed Campbell’s soup was still the way to go in our house, eons before I went vegan). Soup has such a warming, snuggly quality, and all those tiny little star noodles were perfect for scooping up on a teaspoon and slurping from a big Winnie the Pooh mug, spending the day curled up on the couch with mom periodically offering hot tea and blankets in her sweet way. Brings me back to young childhood bliss…reminding me how strong our mother-daughter relationship is and how sweet she still is today. Love her and her chicken-soup-cures-all mentality, to this day. :)
AND that reminds me! A book from my childhood about Martha the talking dog and her alphabet soup! Haha if you ever read those books you’ll understand what I mean…if not, I hope you chuckled regardless at the thought of a goofy smiling dog named Martha that talks and scares the bejeezus out of whatever human she passes :) Have a lovely day and thanks for sharing your beautiful blog. xo
My step-dad makes the BEST soup! No recipes, everything from scratch. Delicious. One evening many, many years ago he was carrying a freshly made pot (and I mean a BIG pot!) of soup from the kitchen to the refrigerator in the basement. All of a sudden he lost his grip and the pot hit the floor. Soup was EVERYWHERE!! There were noodles hanging from the light above the kitchen table, peas rolling out into the family room and broth all over the ceiling and walls. What a mess! We had a good laugh after we cleaned up the mess. Cleaning it up wasn’t the hardest part – missing out on all that good soup was!! My step-dad turned 86 this year. He still lives alone and still makes AWESOME soup!!
My favorite kind of soup I like is creamy tomato soup with basil and croutons and a sprinkling of shredded cheeses(all kinds). Yummm.
My favorite soup is this tomato soup that the diner in my hometown used to have, it was many years ago, and before I was vegan, but I would love to recreate it!!!
All of my mama’s homemade soups bring back memories of my childhood. My favorite is tomato soup with rice.
Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches as a kid. especially great after playing in the snow outside all day.
My mom used to make French Onion soup for Christmas Eve late supper. She passed away 27 years ago – for the first few years, I didn’t make it,but then I wanted my children to have that memory so started again. Now,if it looks like we aren’t making it,at least one will ask, “when”. It is definitely as much about the finished soup as it is about making it together and sharing, and for me, thinking even more about my mom.
Mom made a corn chowder with chunks of potato. It was so warming and filling in Maine in the winter.
My favorite soup memory is from when I was about 12 and started really getting into cooking. I made a ridiculously complicated vegetable soup that included making my own broth and felt like it had half of the produce section in it! It was a time-intensive labor of love and fortunately turned out truly delicious. Fortunately I’ve now built up a repertoire of much quicker and easier recipes!!