If you are looking at the title of this recipe and thinking to yourself, “Chestnuts in soup?!” or “That looks like a pretty weird ingredient combo!” or even “That doesn’t sound like a very good soup,” then I would not be offended. To be honest, it was the same response I had paging through the cookbook Moro, on the hunt for some soup inspiration. But I’ve since learned that chestnuts in soup are actually a thing (I’ve got a chestnut-pear soup lined up for later this week for the remainder of my chestnuts- will report back) and this soup was good enough for me to make it TWO times in as many months.
The first time I made this soup was in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, and I did it the really hard way. First I decided to double the recipe (note: this is not the hard part). Then, being an unfamiliar chestnut shopper (and by that I mean I didn’t appreciate that you could buy them already peeled in the jar), I decided to purchase chestnuts in their shells. Then, I spent – I kid you not – over an hour of my life peeling 2 1/4 pounds of chestnuts, which was very hard work and caused me to sour on this soup immediately after I’d shelled the last one.
It’s for that reason that there was no photo evidence of the soup’s maiden voyage- by the time the gas on the stove was on, I was feeling more than a little resentful and not very excited. In the end, it worked out okay, because the soup was delicious and super easy (when you buy the pre-peeled chestnuts), and it was a great soup for me to make for myself last week when I finally had the energy to stand up for awhile after surgery. I mean, I also totally forgot to put the chorizo in when I was browning the onions, carrots and celery, but I was able to course-correct, and I think the result was even more delicious with some extra time for those base ingredients to really caramelize!
If you like to snack on chestnuts, you know that they’re a very rich nut, and so, unsurprisingly, this is a pretty rich soup. The chestnuts cook for awhile, and they’re then mostly blitzed up with an immersion blender or potato masher (the choice is yours on the ultimate texture), so this really doesn’t taste like a soup that has nuts in it. It tastes like a complex and spicy soup (try not to get super-hot chorizo or your mouth will be on fire), and I found that the addition of a dollop of sour cream, creme fraiche or even plain yogurt added just the right amount of acid to offset the richness and spice. Buen provecho!
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large Spanish onion, diced
- 1 medium carrot, diced
- 1 celery stick, thinly sliced
- 120g mild cooking chorizo, cut into 1cm cubes
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon ground cmin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped thyme leaves
- 2 small dried red chiles, crushed
- 2 tomatoes, fresh or tinned, roughly chopped
- 500g cooked peeled chestnuts (fresh or vacuum-packed), roughly chopped
- 20 saffron threads, infused in 3-4 tablespoons boiling water
- 1 liter water
- Sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, chorizo and a pinch of salt and fry for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything caramelizes and turns quite brown. This gives the soup a wonderfully rich color and taste.
- Now add the garlic, cumin, thyme and chile and cook for 1 more minute, followed by the tomato and, after about 2 minutes, the chestnuts. Give everything a good stir, then add the saffron-infused liquid and the water, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and mash with a potato masher or blitz with an immersion blender until almost smooth but still with a little bit of texture. Season with salt and pepper.
Notes
From Moro
