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Writer's picturerodica godlewski

winter chestnut and onion cream soup


You know those days when it's cold outside and all you want to do is curl under a blanket with a bowl of hot soup? well, today was one of those days. My favorite cream soup involves chestnuts. That being said, I don't make this soup often enough and the reason being those chestnuts are sooooo hard to peel. Of course I could always get already peeled chestnuts, but then what would the charm be in that?





INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil plus more for the drizzle, divided

  • 32 oz whole chestnuts, boiled and peeled

  • 3 medium-sized yellow onions, finely chopped

  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled

  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  • 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

  • 2 tablespoons red wine

  • 1 cup chicken stock

  • 1 tablespoon fresh lovage, chopped

  • 3 tablespoons sour cream

  • 2 thick smoked bacon slices, finely cubed, and fried

  • fresh thyme sprigs

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a medium-sized soup pan heat the two tablespoons of olive oil until sizzling. Add the chestnuts, onions, garlic, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and dried thyme leaves. Sauté over medium heat for about ten minutes, mixing from time to time. Add the red wine, chicken stock, fresh lovage leaves, two cups of water, then boil on medium heat for about thirty minutes. Mix occasionally. Carefully remove the hot soup from the pan and place it in a food processor and process into a cream.

  2. Pour the cream soup into a serving dish, add the sour cream in the center, drizzle with olive oil, and top with the fried bacon and fresh thyme.






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1 Comment


8Bit Baker
8Bit Baker
Dec 06, 2023

I saw this recipe on pinterest and thought the photos were so beautiful that I just had to try it. Now, some important context: I'm an American and live in America. After I determined I was going to make this, I thought to myself "Why don't we eat Chestnuts in America anymore? They're in all the Christmas songs..." And that's how I learned that from 1900-1940 a sickness wiped out nearly every American Chestnut tree. Sure enough, several of our grocery stores didn't have chestnuts and in hindsight, I couldn't remember seeing fresh chestnuts in my lifetime. However, I did manage to find some chestnuts (of varying quality; 3 of my 32 were rotten) for $9.99/lb at one smaller store.…


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