It’s tough to improve on this Corn and Poblano Soup from Diana Kennedy so she deserves the credit here. It seems to achieve an ideal balance between the corn and the roasted poblanos. Easier said than done.
In her book The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, Ms. Kennedy cites Senora Cantu as the inspiration for her recipe. It makes you wonder how many generations have had their day brightened up by the unique combination of corn and poblanos. In other words…who inspired Senora Cantu?
Corn and Poblano Soup Recipe
Don’t forget that poblano peppers can vary quite a bit in size. I’m using 3 smallish poblanos, but 2 of the larger ones would be plenty for this recipe. And if you aren’t a fan of spicy foods you could probably cut the poblano amount in half.
Give the poblanos a good rinse and roast them in the oven at 400F along with 3 plum tomatoes.
I usually flip the poblanos after 10-15 minutes. In about 30 minutes or so they’ll look like this:
Once the poblanos have cooled, most of the loose, transparent skin will peel off quite easily. Don’t worry about getting every last bit as it won’t affect the flavor too much.
Then you can de-stem and de-seed the poblanos.
It’s okay if you have a few seeds straggling behind.
Chop the poblanos into bite-sized strips and saute them in 3 tablespoons of butter for a couple minutes.
Meanwhile, add the 3 tomatoes to a blender along with 1/4 onion. Combine well and add the tomato-onion mixture to the poblanos.
Cook over medium heat for 4-6 minutes or until the tomato sauce reduces down a bit. This will give you time to blend together 3 cups of corn and 3 cups of milk.
This will be the base for the soup. I strained this through a sieve to remove the pulpy bits but I’m not sold on that being completely necessary.
Slowly add the strained corn base to the poblano mixture while stirring continuously. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, freshly cracked pepper, and up to 1 cup of whole corn kernels.
This can simmer for 10-15 minutes on low heat; no need to bring it to a full boil when using milk as a base.
Note that when compared to our Roasted Poblano Soup, garnish is less important here as the soup itself already has a range of competing flavors.
But it’s still amazing what a final dash of acidity can do. I used lime juice for this batch…
…along with Crema, finely diced cilantro stems, and some freshly cracked pepper. So good!
Give it a try and you might inspire the next generation.
Buen Provecho.
Corn and Poblano Soup
Ingredients
- 3 poblano peppers
- 3 plum tomatoes
- 1/4 onion
- 4 cups corn kernels
- 3 cups milk
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- freshly ground pepper
- Crema (or heavy cream, or sour cream)
- lime juice
- finely diced cilantro stems
Instructions
- Rinse the poblanos and tomatoes. Roast them at 400F for 30 minutes or so. I usually flip the poblanos after 15 minutes.
- Once the poblanos have cooled, pull off as much of the transparent skin as you can.
- De-stem and de-seed the poblanos, chopping them into bite-sized pieces.
- Saute the chopped poblanos in 3 Tablespoons of butter over medium heat for a couple minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the 3 tomatoes and 1/4 onion to a blender and combine well.
- Add the tomato-onion mixture to the poblanos and let this reduce down for a few minutes.
- Add 3 cups of corn kernels and 3 cups of milk to a blender and combine well.
- Run the corn mixture through a sieve and discard the leftover pulp
- Slowly add the strained corn sauce to the poblano mixture, stirring continuously
- Add the remaining cup of whole corn kernels along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Let simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes but do not bring to a full boil
- Salt to taste and serve immediately
- Garnish with your choice of Crema (or heavy cream, or sour cream), lime juice, freshly ground pepper, and finely diced cilantro stems.
Got leftover poblanos? You can whip up a poblano quesadilla without breaking a sweat.
Still hungry?!
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Karna Lozoya
Hi Patrick!
I found this recipe in Diana Kennedy’s book and was looking for other methods to charring poblano’s and found your site. Once I knew we were starting from the same recipe, I knew you were the one who was going to get me through. Great soup, we loved it. The color was a little reddish… definitely not the bright yellow of your pictures. Maybe I need more corn and less tomato? I also subbed one cup of chicken stock for one cup of milk, so that may have affected tbe color. I will try all chicken stock next time. My husband is Mexican and this passed the test. He did not like the oven method for the poblanos, however. He is going to teach me to char on an open flame. Thanks again!
Patrick
Thanks Karna, so glad this one is a hit for you! Yeah I’ve had batches come out with that reddish tint before — it just kinda depends on how big the tomatoes are. You could always roast all the tomatoes but then add them in incrementally if you want to experiment with a more prominent corn flavor. Cheers.
Morgan
Have made this a couple times now. Another simple and delicious recipe!
Patrick
Thanks Morgan!
Sean
I used a can of hot rotel with half roasted plum tomatoes, some red chili flake and a roasted Serrano because I love spicy. Bad idea. Don’t do that, one of those ideas yes, three and later you will be getting rid of fire corn. I felt like Elton johns rocket man on the John. So beware!
Julie
I have fresh corn on the cob to use for this recipe recipe. Do I need to cook it first or just blend it with the milk uncooked? And what percentage of mike do you think works best? Whole, 2%?
Thank you,
Julie
Patrick
Hi Julie! I would cook the corn before blending it with the milk. And the milk choice shouldn’t matter too much but whole will probably taste better 🙂 Cheers.
Simone
OMG! This soup was too hot to eat! I like hot. I love peppers, crushed red, Thai food, wasabi, blackened stuff, etc, but this was bitingly hot, even without seeds. I am chalking it up to the particular peppers I used from our local Farmer’s Market that were labeled Hot (I used 2) and the fact that the onions were not cooked. I thought calling poblanos hot was an overstatement, but I should have listened. I tried another version of corn poblano by broiling the peppers until charred. Not sure if this would make a difference. I put a can of diced tomatoes in it to dilute it a bit and I will try it again tomorrow.
Patrick
Hey Simone! Hmmm kinda surprised to hear this as poblanos are typically mild, but you can always add the poblanos incrementally if you want a version with less heat. Cheers.
P.S. Broiling the peppers shouldn’t affect the heat so that probably wasn’t the culprit.
Rachel
Can you use frozen corn or does it need to be fresh?
Patrick
Hi Rachel! Yeah frozen corn will still give you a great result.
Chenna
Wow… yummy soup – exactly the flavours I was hoping for!
Patrick
Thanks Chenna! Glad you found a keeper on the site. Cheers.
Sonya Kasper
I know this is an old post but I tried this last week and really liked it except that the poblanos were very bitter. I did remove the skins and ribs and seeds.
I ended up arduously pulling them all out and blending them separate to see if I could salvage some pepper flavor and to my surprise, the puree was amazing. Not bitter at all. I even mixed it in with the soup and thought it really tasted great, though the color was now a greenish hue.
I meant to try this again, but I’ve been put off by the bitterness. I assumed poblanos are just like that, but I’m reading they are not supposed to be. Can you help me figure out what I did wrong? I’d love to make this exactly as is and know what I’m missing. Did I not roast the pobalnos enough?
Thanks!
Sonya
Patrick
Thanks much for the details Sonya — my first thought is that the poblanos weren’t roasted long enough. Can I ask how you roasted them and for approx. how long?
The other thing to keep in mind is that salt can suppress bitter flavors, so you can always add a bit more as a last ditch effort to save a recipe, but you shouldn’t have to do that with this recipe…
Sonya Kasper
Hey Patrick,
Thanks for the reply. I don’t really time things, I go by smell and look. The skins we’re loose but not fall off the pepper loose. There was maybe one or two very dark spots.
I’ll try roasting for longer next time. Thanks!
Patrick
Okay try giving them at least a half hour in the oven this time, flipping them once halfway through. By then you should be able to peel off most of the skin by hand once they cool down a bit. I hope this helps a bit. Let me know how it goes!
Sonya
Tried it again tonight. It was great! I roasted the peppers for almost 40 min and put them in a plastic bag to cool. The skin came right off. I salted as I sauteed then in butter and the results were much better. Really love this recipe
Patrick
Ahh awesome so glad you found the sweet spot! Thanks much for following up, very helpful for other peeps reading the comments. Cheers.
Cristy Mek
Could you omit or reduced the milk in this recipe? If so, how would it affect the final product? Or is there a healthier substitution? Love so many of your recipes just trying to cut calories where I can.
Patrick
Hi Cristy. I think it’s worth trying this recipe with stock if you want to avoid milk, ie instead of blending the corn with milk you blend it with stock. You’ll definitely get a less creamy soup but I think the flavors will still be there. I haven’t tried it like this but it does sound kinda good. Let me know how it goes!
P.S. If you go for it it’s worth using a high quality stock.
Sabrina
I tried it tonight with vegetable stock instead of milk. I kept some of the pulp in to add some bulk. The stock I used was low sodium, so I used 1 1/2 tsp salt. Dashed with lime juice before eating. As much as I liked the original recipe, I actually prefer the vegetable stock. Thanks for these recipes Patrick.
Patrick
Hey thanks much for your note Sabrina, it makes me want to try a stock version as I usually keep some homemade veggie stock in the freezer. Cheers.
Sandee Justiss
Love this
Patrick
Thanks Sandee!