Sopa de Calabacitas con Elote

Last year after going to a farmer's market in Leesburg, I came back with a large amount of varied squash, corn, and vegetables. I looked around online and came across this soup. It is a Mexican comfort soup that is made in a number of ways. For my version, I wanted to make a rich thicker style, so I tweaked it out a bit and pureed the base with a touch of sour cream.

To make this I cooked some of the squash with potatoes and onions pureed it to serve as the base, then finished it with corn, peppers, and more sauteed squash. Because this was late fall, I had a decent amount of herbs and hot peppers from my garden, so I went that direction and added lime as the acid. The end result was a bright rich soup that was loaded with vegetables.

To finish the soup I garnished it with a simple chive sour cream, and queso fresco crumbles. Though I used dairy and chicken stock in this soup, if one was so inclined you could easily swap the stock to vegetable, and change up the garnish to something along the line of pumpkin seeds to give it a touch of texture. I find the cream and cheese bring the lime, peppers, and garden vegetables together for a well rounded finish, but as always these recipes are just templates of soups that I make.

Enjoy.

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Ingredients

• squash, variety of summer squash 4 lbs

• onions, charred then chopped 3 ea

• corn 3 ea

• poblanos 3 ea

• extra virgin olive oil as needed

• garlic, peeled 1 head

• potatoes, medium, peeled and chopped 4 ea

• hot peppers* 3-4 ea

• tomato, chopped 1 ea

• chicken stock 2 qts

• vegetable base 2 T

• water 2 qts

• oregano, fresh .5 oz

• thyme, fresh 5 springs

• salt and pepper in to taste

• adobo seasoning 1 T

• lime, zest and juice 4 ea

• coriander, toasted and ground 2 tsp

• sour cream 8 oz

• chives 2 T

• queso fresco 8 oz

*Feel free to use any time you want, I had Tabasco and aji peppers at the time

Garnish

sour cream with lime and chives, queso fresco

Method of Procedure

1. Start this soup by shucking your corn and placing it, along with your peels onions and rinsed poblanos on a sheet tray and coat with oil. Either roast in the oven at around 425 or place on the grill to char.

2. Once your vegetables are charred, cut the corn of the cob, running the back of your knife across the cob to remove any remaining kernels or milk, reserve the cobs.

3. Rough chop your onions. Lastly peel your poblano, remove the seeds, and chop to use later.

4. Heat your soup pot with a touch of oil and add your hot peppers and garlic and cook to get color on each.

5. Reserve about 1 lb of your squash and rough chop the rest. Add them, your tomato, and your onions to the garlic and peppers and continue to cook while stirring.

6. Next put in your vegetable base and fresh herbs (minus your chives) and keep cooking while stirring to coat the ingredients with the base.

7. Add your chicken stock, water, the juice and zest of 3 limes, chopped potatoes, and corn cobs then bring to a simmer.

8. Next, stir in about 4 oz of sour cream and whisk to dissolve. (This will look broken at this stage, but when you puree it, the soup comes back together). Simmer for another 30 minutes.

9. Remove your cobs and puree your soup with a stick blender, or run it through a blender to puree. Season to taste.

10. Season your reserved squash with adobo seasoning, and saute in batches to get color.

11. Add your squash, poblanos, and corn kernels to the soup and simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Season to taste.

12. To serve, mix remaining sour cream with your remaining lime juice and zest, chives, salt and pepper and dollop or squeeze on top of the soup. Crumble queso fresco on top and enjoy.