Mexican Sweet Corn Soup - #SoupSwappers

We have never been much of soup lovers. The occasional soup we have is Chicken Noodle Soup or Tomato Soup or the Manchow Soup and ofcorse the yummy Indian Chinese Sweet Corn Soup.
I joined this group called Soup Saturday Swappers in an attempt to learn more about the various other soups out there. The challenge this month was to cook a Mexican Soup. I further challenged myself and attempted a full vegetarian soup.
My research gave me so many options - all yummy pork and chicken soups out there. The one that caught my eye was the simple Sweet Corn Soup with Mexican flavors of roasted cumin and paprika. Its a very simple recipe and a very tasty soup too.

Its the peak of winter here and we have had icy storms around. So, there was no fresh corn on the cob available anywhere. I made use of the frozen sweet corn here. I am sure fresh corn taste would have been amazing - but, the frozen corn soup was yummy too.

Ingredients

4 cups corn kernels
1 yellow onion
4 garlic cloves
2 celery stalks
2 teaspoons roasted cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup cotija cheese (I used romano as cotija was not available)
1/2 cup corn (steamed) - for garnish)
2 tbs cotija or romano cheese - for garnish
1/2 cup chopped cilantro - for garnish
sour cream - for garnish (optional)
salt to taste

Method

Heat a huge saucepan or dutch oven and add the oil to it. Then add the garlic, onions, celery and 4 cups corn and let it saute for about 10 minutes - stir it occasionally. When you see the onions are transparent and the corn looks a bit cooked, add the cumin powder and paprika powder and mix well. Add the vegetable stock to this mixture. Cover the pan and let it come to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat and let this mixture simmer for about 20 minutes.
Remove it off the heat and let it cool down a bit. Use either a immersion blender or a blender like vitamix or blendtec to puree the mixture. To this add the cotija or romano cheese and salt to taste. Bring it back on heat and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Add the black pepper powder and mix well.
Soup is now ready to be served.
When serving - add soup to a bowl, top it with some steamed corn kernels, some shredded cheese and chopped cilantro. You can add a dollop of sour cream for extra creamy soup. Enjoy!!!

Sending this to #SoupSwappers

This month the theme is  - Mexican Soup, Caldo & Sopa
Hosted by Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Do check the posts of the different Mexican Soups made by fellow bloggers.

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