We went out for dinner one evening a few weeks back. As soon as we walked through the door, we were hit by the most memory evocing smell. I smelt my Grandmothers kitchen from years ago! Lovely smells of sage and thyme and roasted things 🙂 . What we ended up eating that night to start with was the bringer of that memory. It was a beautiful Chestnut soup that just transported our tastebuds to nirvana. Best tasting soup ever.
The nearest recipe I could find is the one following that is so, so close in flavour.
Mushroom and Chestnut Soup.
First assemble all your ingredients.
You will need,
30gm butter
1 tablespoon of Olive oil
100gm pancetta, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
500gm mixed mushrooms, sliced (use Shitake, oyster, shimeji,cup etc) We used dried shitake and porcini mushrooms as well.
285gm can Chestnuts, drained (we used chestnut puree, unsweetened!)
1 potato, diced
4 cups of good quality vegetable stock
1 tablespoon Sage chopped
1tablespoon thyme
1/2 cup of cream
In a large saucepan, heat butter and olive oil on high and saute the pancetta, onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes until onion is golden.
Add the mushrooms, chestnuts and potato and cook 3-4 minutes, until mushrooms are tender.
Stir in the vegetable stock and herbs. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in cream and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
Remove from heat and using a hand/stick blender (or food processor), process until smooth. I also rubbed it through a drum sieve for a velvety texture. Season to taste and reheat if necessary. Serve soup with a swirl of cream.
We sprinkled ours with black pepper and made gluten free goats cheese toasts to have with it!
This worked as well!
Wonderful flavour. Just about the same as the restaurant. Next time, I’ll use the whole tin of pureed chestnuts and less dried mushrooms and see how that goes. It was a lovely satisfying Sunday night dinner with the rain pouring down outside and sitting in front of the fire to eat 😀
cathyandchucky 