RECIPE: Feeling corny over corn (cob) chowder

Gimme all the fresh corn. Yellow corn. White corn. Corn arranged in tidy grocery store packs. Farmers market corn with silk tassels and the occasional organic insect. I don’t care, I love corn on the cob like it’s my job. My family, however, believes in moderation. So if I’m going to enjoy my daily dose of vegetable sunshine, I need to be creative.

This corn crab chowder ticks all the boxes for a light, yet filling (16 grams of protein!) summer supper. It uses three big ears of cooked corn, so it’s a great next-day use of leftovers. You can throw it together without heating up the kitchen. And if you don’t keep cans of crabmeat in your pantry, you can substitute shrimp or even a mild white fish to skip a trip to the market.

The fun part of this recipe is that the corn cobs simmer in the broth. This allows us to extract the corn flavors from the cobs, and, as a side benefit, means we are using as much of this precious produce as we can. It’s a trick I learned from corn stock recipes, which magically transform what would otherwise be corn cob waste into a delicious stock. Thanks to the sweet corn goodness and the savory crab flavors, you don’t need much else to season this soup. A few shakes of salt and pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice are all you need to bring the best summer flavors to your table.