Creamed Corn Is the Secret to Better Soups

• Canned creamed corn balances tomato acidity with sweetness and natural starch.
• A chef explains that corn sugars mask acidic flavors, making soups taste more rounded.
• The trick works in both veggie-packed and beef-based tomato soups for balanced flavor.

My mother-in-law, Gale, lives in Pennsylvania and has a considerably longer soup season than I do in warm-and-sunny Florida. Crisp fall weather and dreary winter skies have led her to try plenty of soup recipes, from chunky, creamy potato soups to one of my personal favorites, her vegetable beef soup. Tomatoey and a little sweet, with comforting ingredients like roasted cabbage and melt-in-your-mouth beef, it’s a meal that I recently found out includes a secret ingredient.

Like many great recipes, Gale’s go-to vegetable soup was borrowed. She gives all the credit for the delicious meal to Rose, one of her best friends. “Galesie and Rosie,” as I call them, agree, there’s a secret store-bought ingredient that makes all the difference in the comforting vegetable soup: canned creamed corn.

A Soup-Making Secret Passed Down Through Generations

Why canned creamed corn? “It adds sweetness,” my mother-in-law said. “And I think it takes some of the acidity of the tomatoes away.”

Rose said her mother is the one who taught her to make vegetable soup with creamed corn, and she’s taught her two daughters to do it the same way, although sometimes they switch things up. “One of my daughters uses real corn on the cob,” she said, explaining that, rather than opening a can of creamed corn, her daughter removes the kernels from a corn cob with a knife, then chops through them a few times to create a starchy, creamy pulp. “But I always use canned creamed corn—it really adds a sweetness to the soup.”

Why Does Creamed Corn Make Tomato Soup Taste Better?

Curious about the science behind this secret soup ingredient, I reached out to chef Toni Elkhouri, who owns Cedar’s Cafe in Melbourne, Florida, to ask her why creamed corn makes vegetable soup better. “That’s an easy question,” Elkhouri said. “Tomatoes are naturally high in malic and citric acid, which give the tomato its natural bite. Now when you’re talking about creamed corn, it has natural sugars, which kind of mask the acidity in the tomatoes and give the whole balancing-out effect.”

“It gives a less acidic and more rounded flavor profile to the dish and also thickens the dish because the creamed corn is going to add more starch and natural sugar,” she added. “It’s not about reducing the acid because it doesn’t absorb any of the acid. It’s about masking the acid to balance out the bite.”

Easy Ways to Use Creamed Corn in Soups

Makes sense to me. In fact, since discovering Gale and Rosie’s soup hack, I’ve used canned creamed corn in other tomato-based soups to mask some of the acidity and it’s worked great. When I make homemade creamy tomato soup with tomatoes fresh from my neighbor’s garden, I add a bit of canned creamed corn to make the soup even creamier (and much less acidic). I also love making a more vegetarian version of my beloved, Pennsylvania-born vegetable beef soup, creating a tomato-based broth and tossing in roasted vegetables like carrots, broccoli, cabbage and zucchini—and sometimes a bit of orzo to make it taste even more comforting. When I make this veggie-packed soup, I reach for a can of creamed corn to turn down the acidity from the tomatoes and make the whole pot taste sweet and comforting.

Depending on the amount of soup you’re making, you may not even need to use a whole can. Instead, add a bit of creamed corn and let the whole thing simmer for a bit, then taste the flavors and add more if necessary. With this hack, you’re looking for a smoother, sweeter, less acidic taste to your soup, so pay attention to the level of the acidity in your soup and use the creamy canned good to change up the flavor.

The version of vegetable soup my mother-in-law and her friend make is a day-long labor of love that starts by cooking a beef roast and veggies like carrots, cabbage and onions for hours in a roasting pan. Then, they transfer the whole mixture to a large soup pot and add in things like whole tomatoes and condensed tomato soup, as well as three cans of creamed corn to sweeten (and thicken) things up a bit. 

The Bottom Line

Chefs and home cooks agree, a great way to make tomato-based soups less acidic and more sweet is to add some canned creamed corn. To try this hack at home, you can follow my mother-in-law’s go-to recipe or add some canned creamed corn to your own favorite soup recipe.

What makes creamed corn and tomato-based soups a great combo? Elkhouri says adding creamed corn to a tomatoey soup can give the dish a sweeter, less acidic, more rounded flavor. This happens because the natural sugars in the corn balance out the acidity in the tomatoes.