Chestnut soup for the soul

What could be better than a little bit of soup?

So, I admit it… I’d never had chestnut soup before, but now I’m a total convert. We all love chestnuts… roasting on an open fire, for the most part. But being adventurous fellows, we weren’t satisfied with this one use of these little brown gems. WE WANT MORE! So, off the kitchen we trotted and came up with this chesnut soup. It’s the perfect lunch recipe. Or if you want a starter with star quality, serve this one up!

Cook it. Slurp it. Mop it (with some crusty, warm-from-the-oven bread)

Keep your eyes peeled – we’re going to have lots of delicious soup recipes coming up!

Chestnut soup

Ingredients

• 100g Chestnuts
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 200ml cream
• 500ml vegetable stock
• salt & pepper
• a bit of red chilli, thinnly sliced
• 1 spring onion
• 40g Parmesan, grated

Instructions:

1. Bake the chestnuts in a preheated oven for 20 minutes at 220°C
2. Peel off the shell
3. Cut the onion finely and crush the garlic
4. Heat up the oil in a pot at medium heat and add the onion until they start to go a bit transparent. Add the garlic and then the chestnuts and fry for 5 minutes
5. Add the vegetable stock and allow to cook for about 5 minutes
6. Add the cream, salt and pepper, to taste and cook for another 5 minutes
7. In the meantime,cut the chillis and spring onions into thin rings
8. Take the pot off the stove and using a hand-processor, puree the chestnut soup.
9. Serve into bowls with the chilli and spring onions sprinkled on top
10. Sprinkle the parmesan on top!