Try this Miso Corn Soup Recipe recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- flaky sea salt
- oil
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- red pepper flakes
- sliced green onions
- 2 cups cornâ (i used frozen corn)
- 1/4 packageâ silken tofu about 1/4 – 1/3 cup
- 1 1/2 tablespoon white miso paste or to taste
- tofu as needed
- oil preferably safflower sunflower, or grapeseed
- salt if desired
- crispy tofu croutons (recipe below)
- Carbohydrate 20.5623752674383 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 2.9807961875 g
- Fiber 2.11112505135536 g
- Protein 2.2085953125 g
- Saturated Fat 0.450663875 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (283g)
- Sodium 807.4400375 mg
- Sugar 18.451250216083 g
- Trans Fat 0.1779363125 g
- Calories 113 calories
Step-by-step
- 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!
Traditional cream-based corn soups rely on dairy fats to carry their flavors, whereas this plant-based variation achieves its depth through the deliberate interaction of fermented soybean paste and natural vegetable sugars. Sweet corn naturally contains abundant monosaccharides that caramelize slightly when sautéed, providing a sugary baseline that can quickly become cloying without a counterbalancing agent. White miso paste introduces naturally occurring glutamates and organic acids derived from koji fermentation, creating a savory umami profile that chemically suppresses excess sweetness on the human palate while simultaneously rounding out the sharp sulfur notes of the cooked onions.
Achieving Emulsification in High-Speed Blenders
Silken tofu serves a dual purpose here, acting simultaneously as a thickener and an emulsifier that bridges the gap between water-based vegetable broth and vegetable solids. Raw starches from the corn and proteins from the soybean curd must be sheared completely by the blender blades to form a stable suspension without requiring flour or heavy cream. Operating a high-speed blender until friction heats the liquid removes the need for a secondary stovetop reduction step, though high-powered vortex action is required to prevent graininess from lingering in the final puree.
- If the soup separates into watery layers upon resting, insufficient blending time is usually the culprit; process the mixture for a full 60 seconds on high speed to thoroughly break down the insoluble bean fibers.
- When adjusting consistency, add warm broth in increments no larger than 2 tablespoons to avoid over-thinning the natural starch matrix provided by the tofu.
- Ensure tofu cubes for the garnish are drained thoroughly on paper towels before frying in oil heated to medium-high, because excess surface moisture prevents the formation of a crisp exterior crust.
