How To Make Tomato Gnocchi Soup

This tomato basil gnocchi soup recipe is easy to make and incredibly cozy and delicious. The concept of this gnocchi soup is to boil the gnocchi in the soup in the last few minutes of simmering: you don’t have to cook the gnocchi separately!

The secret to the creamy tomato basil base is after sauteing onion and garlic, deglaze the pan with white wine vinegar. The tangy vinegar brings out the brightness in the tomatoes. Adding fresh basil, which brings a delightful savory undertone.

You’ll simmer the soup for about 15 minutes, then add the gnocchi and cook 3 to 4 minutes more until they float.

What To Serve With Gnocchi Soup

Bread is a great side here, try my favorite garlic bread, a slab of focaccia, or half a grilled cheese for dunking. A simple arugula salad, massaged kale salad, or a spinach apple salad cuts the richness. Here are more cozy sides for soup.

Ingredients in This Spinach Apple Salad Recipe

Here are the elements that make this simple salad:

• Best balsamic dressing: This dressing is our go-to! It’s tangy and sweet, and we use it often in green salads with fruit, like strawberry salad or blackberry salad.
• Maple-glazed walnuts or glazed pecans: These are Alex’s genius: just a few minutes in a hot skillet with maple syrup makes the nuts shiny and lightly sweet. Or, make Candied Pecans or Candied Walnuts if you have the time!
• Apple and pear (optional): Instead of straight apple, I like to throw in a pear for depth of sweet flavor. It’s optional, but I love the mix of fruity flavors.
• Spinach and baby greens: A salad of straight up spinach can be overwhelming. I like to pair our spinach with mixed baby greens for a variety of textures and flavors. (Got some left over? Here are my favorite spinach recipes.)

What to Serve With Spinach Apple Salad

It’s easy to whip up, but this spinach apple salad is a real showstopper. Serve it alongside your favorite pasta or stuffed peppers. It’d also pair nicely with chicken thighs, baked salmon, or even homemade pizza.

This spinach apple salad is especially good in the cooler months, as it features lots of fall produce. But works any time of the year! Whatever way you serve it, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with it.

How to Cut Corn Off the Cob

Have you ever tried to cut corn kernels off the cob, only spray them around your entire kitchen? (Two enthusiastic hands up, over here!) After years of doing the same, I finally found a better way. Yes, there’s a secret to cutting corn kernels so they collect all neatly together. All you need is a Bundt pan or tube pan, the kind you use for angel food cake. Here’s how to cut corn off the cob:

• Place the tip of the corn cob into the hole in the middle of the pan. Hold the bottom of the corn cob securely with your non-cutting hand.
• Use a large chef’s knife to cut in a downward motion, letting the corn cobs kernels collect neatly into the bundt pan.

Tips for Making Corn Soup

This healthy corn soup isn’t rocket science: it follows the same tried and true formula of most soup recipes. Chop veggies, saute veggies, add broth and simmer. That’s what you’ve got here! There are just a few things outside of the standard motions:

• Cut the potatoes very small: it will cook faster! I cut mine into a small dice. If you cut them larger, you’ll just have to simmer a bit longer until they’re tender.
• Make a corn broth while you chop the veggies. Many corn soup recipes simmer the soup with the corn cobs right in the pot to add extra flavor. The pot can sometimes get very full when you do this. So I found an alternate method! You can simply pour 2 cups boiling water over 2 corn cobs in a bowl, then go about the business of making the soup. It adds quite a bit of flavor!

How to Serve Corn Soup

Keep in mind that this fresh corn soup isn’t packed with plant based protein: it’s more of a side dish than a main meal. Here are a few things you add to make it a main dish:

• Grilled cheese, like Avocado Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Veggie sandwich like Chickpea Salad Sandwich
• Egg or tuna salad sandwich, like Ultimate Egg Salad Sandwich or Ultimate Tuna Salad Sandwich
• Salad with plant-based protein, like Classic Spinach Salad, Simple Chickpea Salad, or Tossed Salad Recipe.
• Use it as a first course for seafood, like Broiled Salmon, Seared Salmon, Blackened Salmon, Easy Grilled Tilapia, Baked Cod, or Pan Fried Cod.

Ingredients for Chicken Corn Chowder

Chicken corn chowder is the perfect recipe for using up fresh, seasonal corn cobs. However, you can make it with canned corn: though the sweet flavor won’t be nearly as developed, it works in a pinch! This soup is great for transitional weather from summer to fall, and it’s fitting for winter with canned corn when you need a cozy, filling meal. Here’s what you’ll need for this chowder recipe:

• Fresh sweet corn, cobs included: Don’t discard the cobs; they go in the pot.
• Yellow potatoes: Yukon Golds break down just enough at the edges to thicken the broth.
• Sweet onion, celery, carrots, and garlic: These veggies form the aromatic base to the recipe.
• Boneless skinless chicken breast: Poached whole, then shredded.
• Chicken broth and 2% milk: The milk is what makes this a chowder rather than a soup. Going meatless? Swap in homemade vegetable broth.
• Butter and olive oil: Both. The butter is for flavor, the oil raises the smoke point so the aromatics don’t scorch.
• Smoked paprika, thyme, onion powder, and garlic powder — The blend that keeps it from tasting flat.
• Heavy cream — Optional. A ¼ cup at the end rounds everything out.

How to Make Chicken Corn Chowder

Here’s the basic idea of this soup before you commit (or jump to the recipe for quantities):

1. Build the base. Melt butter with olive oil in a Dutch oven and saute the onion, celery, and carrots. Add the garlic and diced potatoes and keep going a few minutes more.
2. Add everything else. Add the corn kernels, the broken cobs, chicken broth, milk, the raw chicken breast, and spices.
3. Simmer, don’t boil. Hold it at a simmer 25 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender.
4. Pull the cobs and the chicken. Discard the cobs. Shred the breast with two forks and set it aside.
5. Puree some of the soup itself. Blending a few cups of the soup together results in a beautifully creamy soup body.
6. Add a little heavy cream. But there’s nothing little a bit of cream to make a rich, hearty broth. I think it tastes best with just ¼ cup of heavy cream.

Ways to Cut Corn Off the Cob

This chicken corn chowder requires a bit of time to prep all the ingredients, especially when it comes to cutting corn off the cob! This is a notoriously tedious process that often ends with kernels of corn all over the floor. Here are a few of my favorite methods for cutting corn:

• Bundt pan method. Place the corn cob right on top of the raised center part of a Bundt pan. When you slice downward, the Bundt pan catches all the corn kernels! Go to How to Cut Corn Off the Cob.
• Inverted small bowl inside larger bowl. You can also use an inverted small bowl inside a larger bowl to catch the kernels (here’s a video).
• Mandoline. If you have a mandoline, use it to cut corn off the cob. It slides right off without making a mess!

Variations on This Corn Chowder

Want to make this soup without chicken, or make it dairy-free? Here’s what to do:

• Vegetarian: Make this Corn Chowder! Or take the recipe below, omit the chicken, and use vegetable broth. You may find you need to add extra salt: you may want to substitute the 2 teaspoons kosher salt with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 2 tablespoons soy sauce, which adds a nice meaty flavor.
• Dairy-Free or Vegan: Make this Vegan Corn Chowder, which uses cashews to blend into a creamy base.