Canned Corn Chowder

Asked by Sairawajid. Answered on 29th November 2019

Full question

The Sweetcorn Chowder looks delicious! Is it ok to use canned sweetcorn instead of frozen? Also is there an alternative to semolina?

Sweetcorn Chowder With Toasted Tortillas — Photo by Lis Parsons

Sweetcorn Chowder With Toasted Tortilla Chips

By Nigella

Our answer

Nigella's Sweetcorn Chowder With Toasted Torillas (from NIGELLA EXPRESS) is made with frozen sweetcorn kernels. This is a handy freezer standby and means that the soup is very quick to make. However frozen corn kernels are not available everywhere and it would be possible to use drained, canned sweetcorn instead. A 200g can of corn yields approximately 160g of kernels when drained, so you would need 6 of this size can. For the US, a 15-ounce can contains approximately 1 3/4 cups of drained kernels so you would need approximately 3 1/2 cans for the soup.

Semolina is added to help thicken the soup. The closest alternative would be a fine ground polenta or cornmeal (the type that cooks quickly) and we would suggest using the same quantity. However as we have not tried making the soup using polenta, we can't guarantee the results.