Creamy Chestnut Mushroom Soup

[nverland]

Creamy Chestnut Mushroom Soup
Prep Time 10 mins Cook Time 30 mins Total Time 40 mins Servings 6 to 8 servings
This soup calls for 6 cups of stock. If you would like a thicker soup start with 5 cups and adjust from there.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons butter or oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 pound cremini mushrooms, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 ounces prepared chestnuts, quartered
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
48 ounces (6 cups) vegetable broth
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Thyme leaves, for garnish


Method

Sauté the aromatics and chestnuts:
In a large pot over medium high heat, melt the butter. Once melted, add the onions and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes.

Add the garlic, mushrooms, and chestnuts, and sauté for an additional 2 minutes. The vegetables will all appear softened, and the mushrooms will have shrunk considerably.

Add remaining ingredients and bring soup to a boil:
Add the thyme sprigs, broth, salt, and white pepper, then bring the soup to a boil. It should have full bubbles at the edges, heading toward the center.

Simmer the soup:
Reduce the heat to medium low to allow the soup to simmer, with small bubbles only, uncovered, about 20 minutes, until chestnuts are a bit softened. Using tongs, carefully remove the thyme stems and discard.

Blend the soup in a blender:
Turn off the stove and let the soup cool for about five minutes. You’ll only be blending half of the soup for this recipe.

Remove half the soup with a ladle or a glass liquid measuring cup and carefully pour it into a blender carafe. If the soup still feels very hot when you place it in the blender, remove the center cap of the blender’s lid and place a clean dish towel over it, so steam can escape as you blend the soup.

If using a low-power blender, blend on medium, about 15 seconds or if using a high-speed blender, about five seconds, until the soup is creamy.

The half batch of soup should fit in a standard sized blender well below the “fill to” line. If you have a small blender, though, you may wish to do this in two batches.

Add the blended soup back to the pot:
Add the blended soup and heavy cream into the pot with the remainder of the soup on the stove and stir to combine. The look should be thicker and more vegetable-laden than a cream of mushroom soup. It will also be a good bit darker than a cream soup, due to the minimal amount of cream used. The overall color will be a shade of brown similar to a very light milk chocolate.

Blend the soup in an immersion blender:
Alternately, use an immersion blender in the pot directly, and run it until half the soup is blended. You’ll want a mix of small and large sized pieces of mushrooms and chestnuts. You’ll want to add the cream after running the immersion blender through the soup.

Serve:
Ladle the soup into bowls. Top with additional salt and pepper, to taste, and a few thyme leaves. Serve.


Ingredient Swaps and Substitutions

If you don’t have everything available for this soup, try one or more of these swaps or subs.

If you don’t have cremini mushrooms available, regular button mushrooms will work just fine. You could also make this even more flavorful and multi-textured with the addition of shiitake, maitake, morel, or other wild mushrooms. Remove any tough stems when prepping.
You can also use chicken or beef stock for this recipe. It will result in a richer soup.
Love to roast your own chestnuts? This is an excellent use for them after they’ve been roasted and peeled! Keep the cooked chestnuts on hand until ready to make the soup, then proceed as you would for the packaged ones.
Use roasted garlic instead of fresh for added caramelized flavor. If you roast it, double the amount added to the soup.
If you don’t have white pepper on hand, standard black pepper will work well.
For a different herbal quality, try sage or rosemary instead of thyme. Follow the same process of simmering the soup with the fresh sprigs, then discarding them before blending.
You can use raw hazelnuts or cashews instead of chestnuts. Make sure to cut the nuts smaller, as it will take them longer to cook otherwise. I’d recommend about 1/4-inch pieces.

Chestnut Mushroom Soup Variations

Try one of the below variations for a new spin on this chestnut soup.

To make this a main dish soup, add 2-4 ounces of cubed and sautéed tofu or shredded cooked chicken to each bowl.
If you prefer a completely creamy soup that doesn’t have any chunkiness at all, you can blend it completely. Passing it through a sieve, or food mill, after blending will yield a thinner, delicate texture.