They call it stormy Monday

It poured here in Mississippi ALL....DANG....MORNING!  We haven't had a lot of rain this summer so 5 hours of rain was definitely welcomed.  My little garden was so thirsty! 

With all the rain and gray skies, I immediately thought about how it was an ideal soup day.  It's really hard to find a good day for soup in the summer, so you've gotta take your opportunities when they come!  "The time to hesitate is through!"

I had several corn on the cobs in my freezer from the farmers market and one large zucchini (when I say large, by the way, I mean it was almost as long and as round as my arm.  Yeah.  I mean large.) from my sister in law's garden.  I've been really into roasting my veggies, so a roasted corn and zucchini soup was kind of a no-brainer.

Creamy Roasted Corn and Zucchini Soup

- 2 large ears of corn

- 1 zucchini

- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced

- 1 tblsp olive oil

- 1 jalapeno (remove seeds for less heat)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 cups vegetable stock (or chicken stock)

- 1 cup water

- 1 sprig of rosemary (optional)

- 1/3 cup barley (or rice, brown, white, wild, whatever!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Remove corn from cob by slicing the kernels off, downward, with the cob standing on a cutting board, vertically.  Put corn on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet.  Reserve cobs.  Dice jalapeno and toss together with garlic, corn, olive oil, and salt, on the baking sheet.  Roast in the oven for 25-35 minutes. 

Meanwhile, add vegetable stock, water, corn cobs (snap those in half for a better fit in the pot), barley, and rosemary (if you're using it), in a medium sized pot.  Bring to a boil and then simmer while corn and peppers continue to roast, letting the barley cook through.

Once corn and peppers are roasted, remove the cobs and rosemary sprig from the broth.  Stir in roasted corn and peppers.  Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until creamy and smooth.  You can also (carefully!) pour soup into a regular blender and blend until smooth.  Reserve 1/4 of roasted corn for garnish, if you'd like.

And that's it!  This soup is sweet, salty, garlicy, and has a little punch of heat.  It's so rich from the sweetness of the corn and it's kind of hard to believe this doesn't have a whole cup of heavy cream in it or something.  It doesn't have cream in it...does it???  Nope.  I just went a re-read the recipe.  Ok.  It does not.