Roasted Sweet Corn Soup with Romesco | Gluten Free | Vegan

Sweet creamy roasted summer corn soup is exactly what stormy weekend afternoons call for. This satisfying but light gluten free and vegan soup is topped with homemade romesco sauce. A match made in summer heaven. See that wood in the background of the shot? That’s our new dining room table! It finally arrived after being delayed over a month. We were lucky enough to borrow a table from Mum and Dad for the last four months, but I am so happy that our beautiful new table finally arrived. Chris and I both joke that it’s a ‘grown-up’ piece of furniture, and then whisper that we’ll have to be careful that no one takes it away from us once they realise we definitely are grown-ups! We bought a table for the life we want: a life filled with dinner parties, boardgame nights, and family dinners. This is a table we are going to have forever and I can’t wait for all the memories we are going to make together.

Now that we live in our own house Chris and I have gotten into the habit of actually having dinner at our beautiful dinner table again. When I was growing up family dinner around the dining room table wasn’t an option: it was an every night ritual, and one that is very important to me. I shuffle around the kitchen making dinner, most often listening to a podcast while I do so, and then call Chris down from his office (we all have our own ways of unwinding) and we eat dinner together at our big, grown-up dinner table. And life feels right.This soup was made while a superb thunderstorm was attacking our city. We had the whole beautiful show: thunder, lightning strikes, pelting rain, and even chunks of ice cube sized hail. It’s on summer afternoons like this that I search for weather appropriate comfort. Sweet corn transformed into deeply sweet and creamy kernels in the oven while I enhanced some store-bought veggie stock by boiling the leftover cobs in it with garlic, onion and herbs. The creaminess of this summer soup comes from potato, not cream, so it’s friendly for my vegan and dairy-free folks, and stays light enough for a summer’s eve supper. The kernels meet the broth again before the soup is served with a dollop of sweet and smoky homemade romesco sauce.Have you ever made romesco before? Have you ever eaten it before? Oh my word. I have eaten romesco in restaurants before but I didn’t realise how easy it was to make at home! The oven does all the hard work by bringing out the sweetness of capsicums, onion, garlic cloves and tomatoes. These ingredients are processed with almonds, paprika, cumin, lemon juice, and a touch of tahini into a sauce that you will want to put on everything. Even if you don’t make the corn soup, please make this romesco and then eat it on rice crackers, tortillas, stirred through pasta, or even just off a spoon! It has the perfect balance of smoky-sweet-savoury.

Snuggle up with your loved ones at your own dining room table and enjoy a bowl of creamy roasted sweet corn soup with a big dollop of romesco and a hunk of bread for dipping. Make some family dinner memories all your own.   

Roasted Sweet Corn Soup with Romesco

Gluten Free | Vegan | Serves 2-3

Tip: this recipe calls for an immersion blender to puree the cooked soup. If you do not own an immersion/stick blender DO NOT BLEND YOUR HOT SOUP IN A BLENDER. Allow the soup to cool completely, then use the blender, and reheat your soup over a low heat.

Make it faster: You can use jarred roasted capsicums for this recipe instead of roasting and peeling them yourself.

Ingredients

For the soup:

• 4 cobs of corn
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 brown onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 6 cups reduced salt liquid vegetable stock
• 3 tablespoons chives (for serving)

For the romesco:

• 1 ½ large red capsicums
• 1 brown onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 small vine-ripened tomatoes
• ½ cup almonds
• 1 tablespoon tahini paste
• Juice 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Make the romesco first. Cut around the core of the capsicums and discard the core, stem and seeds. Place the pieces of capsicum skin side up on one of the prepared baking sheets. Peel the onion and chop into quarters and add to the baking tray along with the garlic cloves (skin on) and tomatoes. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the skin on the capsicums start to turn black and everything is softened. Once roasted, remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing the blackened capsicum skins.
3. Cut kernels off corn cobs (save the cobs) and place on the other prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the kernels at the edges of the sheet have started to turn golden and brown a little.
4. While the corn is roasting heat the oil in a large saucepan and add diced onion and crushed garlic. Saute on a medium-low heat until the onion is translucent. Add the diced potato and stir to combine.
5. Add the dried herbs and vegetable stock. Add the reserved cobs of corn.
6. Increase the heat and bring the pot to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and boil for 20 minutes or until the potato is softened and falling apart.
7. Remove pot from the heat and add 2/3 of the roasted corn kernels. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup to your desired consistency. I like mine to be a little chunky still so I didn’t blend it for too long.
8. Return soup to the stove and keep warm over a low heat while you finish the romesco.
9. Place peeled capsicum, roasted onion and tomatoes into the bowl of a small food processor. Squeeze garlic cloves out of their skin and add to the processor along with almonds, tahini paste, lemon juice, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend until almost smooth. I like my romesco with a little texture!
10. Spoon soup into bowls. Top with reserved corn kernels, a dollop of romesco, and a sprinkle of chives.
11. Soup will keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two days. Reheat in a saucepan over a low heat. Romesco will keep in the refrigerator for up to four days.