Conditions Widely Known as Not Great Soup Weather

I’ve been making some version of a puréed vegetable soup on average every other week for the past year. It’s a recipe-less endeavor, but I generally follow the same formula: heat olive oil in a pot, add in chopped vegetables one at a time, moving from hardest to most delicate and seasoning with salt and pepper as necessary, barely cover in liquid (either vegetable broth or coconut milk), simmer until everything is cooked through, and, finally, blend until smooth.  

Most recently, on an oppressively humid ninety degree day when our a/c unit had given out, conditions widely known as not great soup weather, I made my best version yet. I’m sure our windowless kitchen reached nearly a hundred degrees, and we ate it in front of our only small fan, after I had taken a cold shower. But the very next day two things happened: our a/c unit was replaced, and the weather changed. Suddenly it was perfect soup weather and proved the cliché: the ends justify the means.

A year of puréed vegetable soups yields a lot of results, and I’m not exactly sure how to describe this one. It’s not a potato soup, nor a corn chowder, though together they give the impression of both. Poblano peppers add a taste of the Southwest, yet this soup is distinctly Midwestern -- all of the vegetables are from our CSA. I’ve never specifically repeated one of my casual vegetable soups, but I’m already planning on remaking it again exactly.  So I guess I’ll just describe it as favorite.

JESS’S LATE SUMMER SOUP

You’ll need:

1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped (yellow is a good color for this soup, if available)
2 large poblano peppers, chopped
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cob
1 pint vegetable stock
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy pot. Add vegetables in order listed; I like to chop and add as I go. Season with salt and pepper. Add vegetable stock. Liquid should just barely cover the vegetables; use additional water if necessary. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until everything is cooked through, approximately 20-30 minutes. Let cool slightly, then use an immersion blender to purée. Season again if necessary.

Toasted sourdough and sliced late-summer Michigan tomatoes are the perfect accompaniment to this soup.