Shrimp and Corn Soup

It’s bold and spicy. You can call it summery with its abundance of corn and shrimp but will hold its own with the best of winter soups because of its depth of flavor. As a bonus it freezes really well.

Seafood was often on the menu when I was in college thanks to my parents stocking the freezer. I made only four seafood dishes at the time and this soup was one of them. It was always delicious and holds true to this day. The recipe was hand-written in my own pen and no one seems to know where it came from. I wish I knew who to credit.

There was a moment of panic the last time I made it that my beloved soup had too many tomatoes so I sent it to my ultimate recipe testers, my parents. Phew! It passed so now I can wipe the sweat beads off of my forehead.

My dad did request that I tell y’all if you let it sit in the fridge for three days after cooking it, it will taste even better. 

Shrimp and Corn Soup Ingredients
5 ears of corn
1 quart water
4 T butter
1 ½ c chopped onion
¾ c chopped green bell pepper
¾ c chopped celery
14.5 oz stewed tomatoes
8 oz tomato sauce
10 oz Rotel
¼ c minced garlic
1/4 tsp red pepper (cayenne)
2 tsp black pepper
Salt (to taste)
1 lb 60 count shrimp
green onions, sliced (for garnish)

Shrimp and Corn Soup Directions
Remove the husk and silk from 5 ears of corn. Rinse the corn in water. Lay the corn flat and take a sharp knife to cut down the length of the corn. Repeat until all of the kernels are off of the cob. 

In a soup pot, boil the cobs in 1 quart of water for 1 hour.

Melt 4 Tbl of butter in a frying pan. You want it to melt, but not brown. Add 1 ½ c chopped onion, ¾ c chopped green bell pepper, and ¾ c chopped celery to the butter. You should hear just a slight sizzle that fades. If you hear more than that, reduce the heat. Let the trinity (onion, bell pepper, and celery) sweat until the vegetables are soft and the onions are clear. Smell that? It’s one of my favorite kitchen smells.

Remove 14.5 oz stewed tomatoes from the can and place them flat on a cutting board. Cut them in ¼” strips then turn the strips 90 degrees and slice to create ¼” dice. 

Remove the cobs from the pot. Add the corn, trinity, stewed tomatoes, 8 oz tomato sauce, 10 oz Rotel, ¼ c minced garlic, ¼ tsp red pepper, 2 tsp black pepper, and salt. Stir and taste. Adjust salt and water if needed. You may need to add up to 3 c of water. The salt will depend upon your canned ingredients. 

Bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Turn off the heat and add your shrimp.
After the shrimp turns pink, serve it in bowls and top the soup with green onions.

Notes
If you can’t find 60 count shrimp, you can use smaller (higher count) ones. If you use larger shrimp, just cut them down to size ie you’ll cut 20 count shrimp into three.

I can’t figure out why the soup in the bowl looks so red orange so I added a second picture. You can stop wondering why yours doesn’t look the same as mine.