Chestnut Soup Ingredients by Hans Dölzer

Chestnut Soup

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Chestnuts are well known as a roasted snack at fairs and as stuffing for poultry. They are also suitable for a creamy autumn soup. It is strongly advisable not to use unpeeled chestnuts, because peeling them is a miserable business. They can be bought peeled and vacuum-packed.

Ingredients

  • 200g peeled chestnuts
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 litre water
  • 1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)
  • 100g pineapple chunks*
  • 100g crème fraîche
  • 2 slices lean ham
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable broth
  • Thyme, nutmeg, pepper, salt to taste
  • 40ml brandy

Serves four.

Preparation
In a large pot, sauté onion and carrot in clarified butter. Add chestnuts, sauté briefly and deglaze with a litre of water. Bring to the boil, and stir in vegetable broth. Add a pinch of nutmeg. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2–3 hours. Add the pineapple chunks and puree with a hand blender until smooth. Add water as necessary to achieve desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat, stir in crème fraîche and brandy. Garnish and serve with strips or cubes of ham and thyme leaves.

*Instead of pineapple, traditional honey can also be used. 


Recipe by Hans Dölzer. Born in 1955, Dölzer grew up in North Hesse and moved from the principality of Waldeck to Heidelberg in 1974. He has worked as a bookbinder, taxi driver, tyre fitter, driving instructor, graphic designer, coach driver, lecturer, occupational safety expert and finally as a journalist and author. Under his unmarried name Hans Hohmann he published technical and travel reports, books and book translations, most of them on the topic of motorcycles. Today he lives in the Badische Bergstraße region, in the north of Baden-Württemberg.

Translation by Rod Rojas