Chestnut Soup
A velvet soup of sweet chestnuts, softened onion and thyme, blended silk smooth and finished with cream. It tastes like the quiet beginning of a long Christmas lunch.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Chestnut Soup, in 5 ideas
- Cooked peeled chestnuts are the cook's friend. Vacuum-packed or jarred chestnuts skip an hour of roasting and peeling and give a smoother soup than most of us manage from fresh.
- Sweat the vegetables, never brown them. Gentle cooking keeps the soup pale gold and lets the chestnut's sweetness lead.
- Blend longer than you think. Two full minutes in the blender is the difference between a good soup and a velvet one; pass it through a sieve if you want it perfect.
- Nutmeg and thyme are the quiet seasonings. Both are traditional with chestnuts in France, and both should whisper, not shout.
- A dry sherry finish wakes it up. One spoonful stirred in at the end lifts the richness without thinning the texture.
What you need
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 lb cooked peeled chestnuts (vacuum-packed or jarred)
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 sprigs thyme, plus more to serve
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp dry sherry (optional)
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Salt and white or black pepper
How to make it
Method
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and celery with a pinch of salt and cook gently for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until completely soft and sweet without taking color. Stir in the garlic for the last minute.
Add the chestnuts, stock, bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 25 minutes, until the chestnuts are falling apart when pressed with a spoon.
Fish out the bay leaf and thyme stems. Blend the soup in batches until completely smooth, a good 2 minutes per batch, or use an immersion blender and blend longer than feels necessary. For a truly velvet texture, pass it through a fine sieve.
Return the soup to the pot. Stir in the cream, sherry if using, and nutmeg. Warm through without boiling, then season carefully with salt and pepper; chestnuts need confident seasoning.
If the soup is thicker than pouring cream, thin it with a little more stock. Rest 5 minutes off the heat so the flavors settle.
Serve in warm bowls with a small swirl of cream, a few thyme leaves, and good bread alongside. A crisped sage leaf or a few fried chestnut crumbs make a fine garnish.
The soup thickens as it stands because chestnuts are starchy; make it a day ahead for flavor, but expect to loosen it with stock when you reheat, gently and without boiling after the cream goes in.