Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Roasted chestnut soup

  • Happy December everyone! Can you believe that November has already come and gone? Seriously, if I think of Halloween it seems just a few days ago and now here I am, sitting in the kitchen with the snow coming down and the first window of my Advent calendar already open. Soon I'll start baking all kinds of Christmas cookies and I guess I should be posting all kinds of Christmas related recipes, but first I wanted to share one that I had made for Thanksgiving dinner —only I ended up forgetting about it so I didn't serve it to my guests. I'm a notoriously chaotic person, you see, and I tend to be easily distracted so no one was too surprised when, once dessert was served and already eaten, I realized the soup was sitting in its pot on the stove, simmering on low. 
    Since it was too late to serve it to my guests I ended up eating the leftovers for days —good thing the soup was delicious, comforting and thick as a winter soup should be.

    ROASTED CHESTNUT SOUP
    Adapted from Cooking Light
    3  cups  whole roasted and peeled chestnuts
    2  cups  chopped yellow onion
    3/4  cup  thinly sliced carrot
    1  tablespoon  olive oil
    6  cups  beef broth
    Salt and pepper
    1/3  cup  heavy whipping cream
    1 1/2  teaspoons  chopped fresh thyme leaves

    Combine onion, carrot, and oil on pan; toss to coat vegetables. Bake at 400° for 1 hour or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add to chestnuts; stir in broth. Pour half of broth mixture into a blender; blend until smooth. Pour pureed mixture into a Dutch oven. Repeat procedure with remaining broth mixture. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Place pan over medium-high heat; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. 

    Place cream in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt; beat at high speed until stiff peaks form (do not overbeat). Ladle about 3/4 cup soup into each of 10 bowls; top each serving with about 1 tablespoon cream. Sprinkle with thyme. Serve immediately.

4 comments:

  1. I know I love the smell of roasted nuts... like when you're walking through the mall and they have a kiosk selling them. Mmmmm. I've never attempted to roast my own nuts, though, and DEFINITELY never attempted to turn them into a soup. Sounds delicious!

    I have also NEVER done an Advent calendar, can you believe that?!? I have no idea why...

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  2. I know, I can't believe it's December already...where did November go, lol?

    The soup looks incredible! My hubby goes nuts for roasted chesnuts so I think this would be a huge hit with him!

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  3. Congratulations for the chestnut soup: I had the chance to taste it thanks to the fact that you forgot to serve it during a Thanksgiving dinner I was nt participating to, because I was flying to Europe in that day. So I had that the following day, with other leftovers: the soup was delicious, original, seasonal as recommended by dietologists. Somebody might say I am biased because you are y daughter...I am biased for a different reason: chestnuts had an important role during my groath at the time of WW2, they were almost the only food available in the village...unfortunately your grandmother as not knowing your recepy...Congratulations again
    Your dad

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  4. You too with the chestnuts! I've still got a kilo of them sitting in the fridge, just waiting until I'm ready to deal with them. Actually I like the idea of xmas cookies much better, so let the baking begin!

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