Roasted Chestnut Soup

Name: Roasted Chestnut Soup
Yield: makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 10 large chestnuts, peeled or unpeeled; 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter; 2 cups chopped celery; 1/2 cup chopped onion; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 quart good-quality chicken stock; Chopped celery leaves or parsley for garnish

December 20, 2011

Chestnuts have a subtle but distinctive flavor; another, less-well-known attribute is their ability to lend a rich, creamy texture to anything in which they’re pureed—making cream completely superfluous. This soup is a perfect example, and if you can find frozen, peeled chestnuts, it’s the work of a moment. But even if you cannot, the chestnut-peeling process takes about twenty minutes start to finish, and much of that time is unattended; you can use it to chop and cook the vegetables. In a way, starting from scratch with whole chestnuts is preferable, because they gain a bit of flavor as you toast them lightly to remove the skins.

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