The weather is cooling. Time for winter soups. The soup I'm posting today is a great way to use leftover parts of veggies that might otherwise get tossed. I grew some dent corn this summer; in Seattle, can you believe it? I got it from a local supplier, Uprising Seeds,  a 100% organic seed company,and was pleasantly surprised to find that it not only grew well, but didn't get all the buggy pests I fought with in the South. In this recipe, I have removed the kernals from the cobs for other recipes and am boiling the cobs in the stock which gives the soup a pleasingly light corn flavor. The other second use ingredient is fennel. Fennel bulbs are yummy, but it's a shame to throw away the stalks and fronds, and so this is how I made use of them. This is a veloute style soup. It has only a few ingredients, but takes a bit of time to make.

Sadly, we devoured the soup before I thought to take a photo, so I appropriated a photo of corn and fennel from a fellow blogger, the Vegetarian Chickie, because there must be some sort of photo on a post; but now I feel guilty using someone else's photo, so go check out her fennel and corn recipe! It lookes pretty yummy. You get two recipes for the price of one.

This is my recipe for Fennel, Corn and Fish Soup:

8 cups of broth, I used turkey

2 corncobs, cut in two, so they will fit into the pot

stalks of 1 head of fennel chopped into 1" chunks

1 large potato, 2 would make a thicker soup, cut into chunks

10 oz. salmon, cut into cubes, or flavorful fish of choice

1/4 cup fennel fronds, finely chopped

2 cups greens, I used assorted weeds from the yard, nutritious

First I simmered the corn cobs in the broth for a couple of hours. I suppose this could be done in a slow cooker, but I did it on the stove with a lid, so the liquid doesn't evaporate too much. Once the cobs had a bit of a tranlucent look, I fished them out and they went to the compost pile. Next I added the fennel stalks and simmered for about another hour, I left the bigger chunks which had softened up, but fished out the thinner tougher bits as they stay pretty tough, but have left their flavor. Add the potato, and simmer until just tender. Add the chopped greens and leave for about 3 more minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and allow to cool some before putting in the blender. Return the soup to the pot and reheat to a simmer, adding the fish. When the fish is looking done, add chopped fennel fronds.

Some possible additions for serving might be a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, or a pesto. For vegans, you could possibly use vegetable broth and tempeh instead of fish, but I think it will be a blander soup, you might want to add some carrots or corn kernals for more flavor. I personally never follow a recipe to the letter, experiment.

Enjoy!

 Let me know if you liked it.