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!
Hi Stephanie,
Firstly I would like to compliment you on your awesome blog. It’s really good and different in look compared to other food blogs. And thank you very much for coming up with a giveaway. Regarding my favorite soup memory, it was 12 years back when I first heard of the word soup although I do not know that I’ve been consuming soup since childhood. It was in a fair held in my town where I first tasted this soup named tomato bread soup. I brought it for a free ticket which a family friend of mine gave it to me. The vendor served this particular soup very hot in a bowl. After blowing it for a while as it was very hot, I tasted the first spoon and it felt really refreshing in that slightly cold evening weather. The first taste I felt from that soup was tangy which is obviously from tomato then to add flavorings to it and to make it spicy they have put ginger, garlic, peppers/paprika, black pepper corn powder and I think small amount of sugar also inorder to compensate for whole lot of spices they added. I found few beans, carrot pieces here and there in that soup. But the major part of the pieces I found in it were toasted bread. Imagine once, when we were given freshly made soup which is finally garnished with good amount of toasted bread pieces in the end. When you taste it hot the toasted bread pieces do not absorb so much liquid by that time and it retains it’s crumbly texture but moistens little. It gives you a feeling of a natural healthy cookie. I can never forget that evening and that soup. You made be rewind those beautiful memories of my childhood. Thank you very much
My mom’s chinese pear soup, made with an abundance of ripe pears from our pear tree in the back yard.
My family often gets together at a Jewish deli, and I always get the big bowl of matzo ball soup. The ultimate comfort food!
My favourite soup memory is when I used to come back from skiing with my dad, my mom would have a piping hot and delicious soup of Chinese noodles bathing in beef broth ready for us! It was so good, and as a 7 year-old, I burned my tongue of course thanks to my eagerness and got some all over my shirt and chin. :p
My mom always made french onion soup (which I did not like, except for the cheesy crouton) and potato soup, which I loved, with extra cheese. mmmmm
Thank you for the recipe. My favourite soup is Emeril Lagasse’s African peanut soup made vegan with textured vegetable protein in lieu of turkey and homeade vegetable stock. The flavours are amazing but it brings me back to a time when I was living in a smaller town for University and struggling to fit in coupled with veing the only weirdo vegan in my family.. I lived with a girl I went to school with and despite not having any restrictions on her diet she made me this soup because she was sure I would like ut. It was such a genuine and particular kindness that I’m always reminded of when I have this soup now.
As an added bonus I would years later marry a great guy who is a great cook with the surname Lagasse.
My favorite soup memory has to be every Christmas Eve. We have minestrone soup in anticipation of Santa and I now look forward to it almost as much as Christmas Day! Our family is scattered around the country and Christmas is the one time of year we get together. Enjoying soup together on Christmas Eve is better than Christmas in lots of ways because there are no distractions. We just chat and catch up and fill our bellies and hearts with warm minestrone.
Kow soi in chiang Mai!
My mom makes a delicious potato and leek soup. I always looked forward to coming home after school on the first really cold day of the year and seeing her cooking that up as soon as I walked through the door.
My favorite soup memory is a dungeness crab ramen, from a fishing trip in Alaska. Dungies right out of the water, steamed and taken apart — using the shells to start the soup base. Bok choi out of the garden etc etc, it was amazing.