The Best Popcorn Soup Recipe - A Food Lover's Kitchen (2024)

Laura Lynch

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This Popcorn Soup is so creamy, buttery and velvety. It’s the fine-dining equivalent of eating a bowl of fresh buttery popcorn.

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I first had popcorn soup at Art Restaurant – a fine-dining restaurant in the Four Season Hotel in Seattle – headed by Executive Chef Kerry Sear. It was a true revelation. It was served in a tiny bowl, as fine-dining soups are, and I loved it so much I asked for a second bowl.

After trying a few popcorn soup recipes online, I was never satisfied. It always turned out sort of bland and boring. Missing that incredible roasted buttery flavor of the one I’d had at Art. So there was no choice. I had to develop a recipe myself, based on what I remembered about the soup.

The thing is to get the intense corn flavor that the original soup had, you need to make your own corn stock. It makes the flavor outrageously good. It’s a soup you won’t soon forget. I promise. You can also make your own popcorn using this sweet and salty popcorn recipe.

The Best Popcorn Soup Recipe - A Food Lover's Kitchen (3)

Ingredients You Need

Corn on the cob – It’s best to use fresh corn on the cob rather than canned corn.
Water – Used to make the corn stock
Mirapoix – Celery, carrot, onion
Bay leaf – For added flavor
Garlic– Make sure your garlic is fresh for the best flavor and aroma
Butter – I use salted butter
Popcorn – You can make microwave popcorn or pop kernels on the stovetop
Heavy cream – Makes the soup nice and creamy. You can substitute with half and half if you want to reduce fat.
Salt

Helpful Tips

How to Make Popcorn Soup

Step 1: Make the Corn Stock

To make the stock, first chop all the vegetables. Remove the kernels of corn from the cobs. Reserve the corn kernels for using later.

Add the corn cobs and vegetables, with the water, to a large enough pot to hold everything.

Heat to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2 hours. Then strain the liquid from the solids. You can discard the cobs and other solids.

Step 2: Prepare the Soup Base

Add the butter to a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s nice and melted and bubbly, add the chopped onions and saute for about 8 minutes. You can then add the garlic and allow it to become fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the corn, the corn stock and the salt and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then put it all in the blender and blend it up as smooth as possible. It will still have some chunks in it.

Return the soup to the stock pot and add the popcorn. It’s fun to watch it melt into the soup. Give it about 5 minutes to cook. Then add it back to the blender for another go.

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Strain the soup though a fine mesh strainer back into the soup pot. Add the desired amount of cream. To be honest, the soup turns out quite creamy on its own, without the cream. You can leave it out entirely, if you wish.

Otherwise, add it slowly and taste along the way so you don’t overdo it. Blend the soup one last time to get a perfectly velvety consistency.

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Step 3: Serve the Soup

To serve the soup, add it to the bowls, then just before eating, top it with a few kernels of popcorn. They sink into the soup quickly, so it’s really just for dramatic effect.

Whoever has the pleasure of eating this soup with you is really super lucky. It’s incredible.

Do I Have to Make Corn Stock?

There are two ways you can make popcornsoup. One is with homemade corn stock (yum, but time consuming). The other is to use pre-made chicken or vegetable stock instead.

This recipe uses homemade corn stock, because it’s so amazingly good, but you can just as easily skip that step and add pre-made stock instead. The choice is yours.Not having to pre-make the corn stock cuts down on prep time and creates less dishes (which is always a good thing, in my book).

However, if you have an Instant Pot, you can make the corn stock in a fraction of the time as on the stovetop, so maybe that option is back in play for you now!

To make the corn stock on the stovetop, follow the instructions below. To make it in the Instant Pot, just add all the ingredients to the pot and cook on full pressure for 30 minutes.

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Popcorn Soup

This popcorn soup is so velvety and buttery. It's like eating an elegant version of a bag of popcorn.

4.38 from 83 votes

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 357kcal

Author: Laura Lynch

Ingredients

For the corn stock

2 cobs corn husks removed
5 cups (1 l) of water
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic smashed
1/2 onion cut into quarters

For the soup

1/2 cup (114 g) butter (one stick)
1/2 onion chopped
4 cups (946 ml) corn stock (from recipe above) or chicken stock
1 1/2 cup (218 g) corn shaved from the cob Or 10 oz can of corn with liquid
1/4 teaspoon (1.5 g) salt
4 cups (44 g) popped popcorn divided
6 ounces (170 ml) heavy cream

Instructions

For the corn stock:

Remove the corn kernels from the ears of corn and keep for later.
In a medium saucepan, combine the corn cobs, water, celery, carrot, bay leaf, garlic and onion.
Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce to a simmer.
Let the broth simmer for 2 hours. Remove from heat and let cool, then strain.

For the soup:

In a medium stock pot, melt the butter and add the onions. Saute onion until tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the corn from the cob, corn broth, and salt. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
Put the soup in a blender and blend until as smooth as possible. Remember to let the hot air escape as it blends.
Return the blended soup to the pot. Add the popcorn. Simmer for 5 minutes. Return the soup to the blender and blend again until as smooth as possible.
Strain the soup through a fine mesh strainer back into the stock pot. Add the cream to taste.
For a velvety smoooth soup, blend the soup a third time.
Serve with kernels of popcorn on the top.

Equipment Needed

Notes

If you like buttery things, you’ll want to use buttered and salted popcorn for this soup. If you want less buttery flavor, use plain popcorn.
If you can’t or don’t want to make your own corn stock, you can use store bought vegetable or chicken broth instead.

Nutrition