So we’ve had these little talks about my food blogger weight gain, button blowing, and (hopfully) losing weight by making better food choices during the week. Basically, I’ve been trying to exhibit some self control and eat only plant based foods during the week while allowing some flexibility on the weekend.
Here is a random piece of advice: do not eat vegan during the week and then on Saturday have a hot dog, brisket, mac n’ cheese and potato chips. Trust me. Cheat if you will, but not all at once. Draw your own conclusions. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
We wouldn’t be talking about this if Jennifer hadn’t bullied me into confessing. Don’t get me wrong – I think a vegan lifestyle is great. I just don’t have the kind of will power to sustain it. Seiously. I have zero self-control. None. CHEEEEEEEZE!
I actually was a pretty hard-core vegan for about three years before I went to law school. A stressed out law student doing a weekly 3 hour commute each way from Charlotte to Buies Creek, NC with a kid and one Food Lion did not make for vegan friendly eats. We talked about the slippery slope into mac ‘n cheese. I don’t feel the need to confess to that again. Please still be my friend.
Soooo, I have all these vegan and raw cookbooks that I absolutely love to read because the pictures are stunning and they make me want to eat better. I’ve been going through them recently and making some of the recipes that look fun, delicious, and/or interesting. This is a raw cold corn soup that I adapted from one of the raw food cookbooks on my shelf.
It’s the perfect summer don’t want to be fat anymore cold sweet refreshing soup. If you have a dehydrator and approximately 2.6785 hours of your life to dehydrate corn, go for it. Seriously, be all you can be. Me? Nope. I sent Chris up to the 200000000 degree attic to fetch my food dehydrator and when I saw the amount of cleaning necessary – full disclosure – I said a big oh hell no! So we went with raw corn, heart of palm, and avocado garnishes up in here.
It was delicious.
Adapted from Raw by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein
Summer Cold Corn Soup
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh corn with a handful of reserved for garnish - I used 4 cobs and sliced off the corn
- 2 cups filtered water
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- 1 avocado diced
- 3-4 pieces of heart of palm diced
Instructions
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Combine corn and water in a food processor (or high speed blender) and puree until smooth (ish)
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Season with salt and pepper to taste
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Transfer to a fine mesh sieve and strain into a serving bowl
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Garnish with heart of palm and avocado
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Serve chilled or at room temperature
Note: I do not possess a fancy pants high speed blender, so I used my food processor. If you have such a fancy machine, you may not need to run your soup through a sieve.
I’ve never had a cold soup before! I definitely need to change that after seeing this recipe. This sounds SO good, Rachelle! I’m putting this on my list to try. Love how simple this is!
You gotta love simplicity! Thanks Gayle! I hope you like it!
I was on a similar food plan a few years back: lean proteins and veggies during the week with no sugar, then weekends free. As you can imagine, the weekends made me sick and I felt deprived all the time. Even though I lost weight, it wasn’t a healthy way to do it. Now I’m all about balance every day of the week, and it’s working well. Just took a while to get the hang of it.
I love this soup! It’s really perfect for summer. And I’m sure it tastes completely decadent, even though it’s healthy!
Thanks Mir! That’s just the thing I love about this soup – refreshing, healthy, and deceptively decadent. I haven’t really felt deprived because I’m having fun playing with new food ideas and believe me, after Saturday? I’m more inclined to make the healthy choices! 🙂
We try and eat vegan during the week and then indulge a bit more during the weekend. But I know what you mean about not overdoing it, that can be a BIG mistake.
This soup looks yummy too. I love cold soups in the summer.
I’m so glad to have a soul sister on this mission! Thanks Dannii!
Cold soup is just perfect for these hot summer days. This corn soup looks just perfect!
Thanks Kathy! I tend to forget about cold soups until I surf the interwebs or go back and look through my old cookbooks. Then I remember how great they are.
I’m good with vegetarian, but vegan? Maybe for a day or two. I enjoy dairy products too much.
This soup looks fab. I love a good corn chowder in the winter and this as a summer sup looks like it would be completely satisfying.
Yesssssss! Cheese! I love a good corn chowder too – speaking of dairy! 🙂
I’ve been trying to decide on a cold soup to make, and I think this beautiful corn and avocado soup looks like a great place to start! Thanks for sharing! 😀
The avocado really pulls the whole thing together. I hope you like it!
I have the same problem, food blogger weight gain 🙂 lol but its one delicious problem to have, just like you I am trying to be more mindful with my weekly eats, and allowing more flexibility and fun during the weekend. I have only one pair of pants that fit so that must change soon. The soup sounds delicious and refreshing, loving it for a healthy meal.
Dude. You totally have my sympathy and understanding with the one pair of pants situation.
Cold soup is perfect during the summer! Love the corn and heart of palm! It sounds so cooling and refreshing!
Thanks Kelly! It really is refreshing!
I am trying to do the same but it doesn’t help that I ate 3 macarons yesterday , on a weekday!! :/ This soup looks great, the type of meal I should be eating if I intend to lose weight!
Whoa girl! 3 macarons? You are so badass to do that on a weekday! I just blew 4 buttons like the Incredible Hulk just thinking about it!
I’m still so proud of you and your will power to maintain a vegan diet 5 days a week- so you do have SOME (like a smidge of) self restraint. I’m totally giggling about your indulgence on Saturday and the repercussions of such. (<– I have an imagination). NE-ways, this soup looks fantastic. I LOVE corn (shoot- zellwood, FL had THE BEST corn *sad* I'll have to make do) and this soup sounds like a great way to enjoy one of my favorite veggies! I'm a huge fun of your avocado garnish- all sorts of yumm! I might roast the corn for garnish, because i'm addicted to sweet roasted corn- GIMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE! (<– if i'm not too hot to turn on my oven or too lazy to grill). Seriously can't wait to try this Rachelle! <3 Pinned!
Thanks Chey! It’s really not that hard if you look at it as an opportunity to experiment and try new things. And believe me. I totally learned my lesson on Saturday! 🙂 The avocado is KEY! And I’m with you on the roasted corn. I have been roasting, grilling, and pan roasting the CRAP out of some corn. My addictions are transitioning from cherries, to figs, to corn…. who knows what I’ll be into next. Well, I hope at least I’ll be into my pants!
This looks so refreshing! And even eating healthy as a vegan works like that- If I spend too much time trying to eat super healthy, typically-considered “vegan” foods, I’d end up eating a whole box of pasta on the weekend haha!
That is a pretty silly mistake many do. They are overly ‘good’ during the week, and then they stuff their selves like crazy over the weekend. It simply does not work.
Liked to hear you tried the vegan route, it makes your post even more authentic.
Thanks
Thanks Emanuele! I really appreciate that you think my post is authentic.
This recipe is perfect! So summer-y fresh! Us food bloggers need balance. I do the whole eating a plant-based diet thing. It’s a must, because otherwise I would be eating chocolate and drinking booze all day!!!
Balance can be so difficult! Or wouldn’t we all be eating chocolate and drinking booze all day?
Hmmm…..I’m going to keep my mouth shut on the vegan conversation. 😉 This chowder looks delicious, Rachelle. And, I can only imagine how eating animal products messes with your body after a week of eating plant-based. Yikes!
Girl, as a Former die hard vegan and current person trying to make better choices, I so admire and respect you and Alex for your commitment! I really do love the opportunity to try new foods and ideas. I made your jackfruit crabcakes last week and really loved them! I had to cut back a bit on the Old Bay because I’m a spice weenie, but the rest was fantastic! And I totally learned something new because I was unfamiliar with jackfruit. I might have seen it on Chopped and had to go to 3 stores to find it, but I finally found it at the Asian grocery. Thanks for sharing your lifestyle and commitment with the rest of us. Every person who chooses a plant-based meal or dish makes a difference for that one animal, right?
Oh yeah. I totally forgot to thank you for the lemon juice tip. 🙂