The secrets
- Sweat without browning: the onion should melt, not color.
- Blend longer than you think: time is what makes a soup silky.
- Adjust the texture at the end, with stock: chestnuts thicken more or less depending on where they come from.
After the Christmas feast, there are almost always chestnuts left: those from the side dish, or the open jar from the stuffing. As a soup, they turn into an incredibly gentle winter bowl, tasting of hazelnut and wood fire, that kids love.
A small potato gives it body without weighing it down, and a proper, long blend makes it as silky as in a restaurant. With vegetable stock it stays vegetarian; with yesterday's carcass stock, it reaches another level.
Step-by-step recipe check things off as you go
Prepare the vegetables
Thinly slice the onion, cut the carrot into thin rounds and the peeled potato into small 1 cm cubes. Set 4 nice chestnuts aside for serving and roughly crumble the rest.
Sweat
Melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the onion and carrot with a pinch of salt and let them soften for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring, until the onion is translucent and tender, without browning.
Popotam's tip · Without browning, the soup stays a lovely golden beige; a browned onion would make it bitter and dull in color.The chestnuts
Add the crumbled chestnuts and the potato cubes. Stir for 2 minutes: the chestnuts get coated in butter and release their aroma.
Cook
Pour in the hot stock, add the bay leaf and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and cook at a gentle simmer for 20 minutes. It's ready when a potato cube crushes easily against the side of the pan.
Blend
Remove the bay leaf. Blend for a long time, a good 2 minutes with the immersion blender, until perfectly smooth, without a single grain.
Popotam's tip · In a countertop blender, don't fill the jar more than halfway and hold the lid down with a towel: hot steam pushes up. With an immersion blender, keep the blade well submerged to avoid splashes.Cream and seasoning
Put it back over low heat, add the cream and nutmeg and warm through without boiling. The cue: the soup coats the back of a spoon and leaves a clean line when you run a finger through it. Too thick, thin with a little stock or water; too thin, let it reduce for 5 minutes. Taste and season.
Serve
While the soup heats, cut the reserved chestnuts into pieces and toast them for 2 minutes in the dry small pan. Ladle the piping hot soup into bowls, swirl in the cream, scatter with chestnut pieces and snipped chives, then a grind of pepper.
And there you go, it's ready
Check off every step to celebrate.
The secrets to getting it right what makes all the difference
Storing and making ahead
The soup keeps 3 days in the fridge in a closed container, and 3 months in the freezer (without the serving cream, which you add when reheating). Reheat gently in a pan, stirring, and thin with a little water: it thickens as it cools.
Variations
- With homemade poultry carcass stock instead of vegetable stock: more flavor, but it's no longer vegetarian.
- Half chestnuts, half kabocha squash or celery root, for a lighter soup.
- A few sautéed mushrooms and a drizzle of hazelnut oil when serving, for a special-occasion touch.
The questions you're asking
Can you use jarred or vacuum-packed chestnuts?
Yes, it's actually the easiest: they're already cooked and peeled. Use the same weight, drained. Just avoid sweetened chestnut spread, which has no place here.
My soup is too thick, what should I do?
Thin it little by little with hot stock or water, stirring, until it coats the spoon without being pasty. Chestnuts soak up a lot, that's normal.
Can you make it without cream?
Yes: swap the cream for whole milk, or a plant-based cream (oat, soy). The soup is a little less rich but stays very mellow thanks to the chestnuts.
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