CREAMY RAW SWEETCORN AND BAS I L SOUP

Corn cobs are so sweet these days there’s no need to cook them. To work out if a cob is ripe, pierce it and check that the juice is milky. If clear, the corn is not quite ripe enough and if there’s no juice then it’s too ripe and will be tough and dry.

4–5 fresh young corn cobs

½ avocado, just ripe

3 tablespoons almond butter

½ teaspoon fresh thyme zest of

½ lemon pinch chilli flakes

2 cups chilled milk or almond milk

1 cup ice-cold water

¾ teaspoon salt and grinds of pepper

½ cup basil leaves

To garnish: ¼ cup tamari roasted almonds, chopped

Use a sharp heavy knife to cut the kernels from the corn cobs. You should have about 4 cups. Reserve ½ cup for garnish and place the rest in a liquidizer or high-speed blender with avocado, almond butter, thyme, lemon zest, chilli flakes, milk, water, salt and pepper and most of the basil leaves, reserving about 8 leaves for garnish. Blitz mixture until very smooth. Chill, if not serving at once. It will keep for at least 24 hours. Divide between 6 small bowls and garnish each with a scattering of chopped tamari almonds, reserved corn kernels and basil leaves. Serves 6