Creamy Potato and Celery Soup with Chestnuts
- Savory
- Creamy
- Stovetop
- Oven
A velvety soup of potatoes, celery and onion simmered in chicken stock, blended smooth with cream and finished with sweet roasted chestnuts.
- Total
- 45 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 30
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Sweating · Simmering
Instructions
-
Peel the potatoes and cut them into 2 cm cubes. Trim the celery and slice it into 1 cm pieces. Peel the onion and chop it roughly.
~10 min
Cutting everything to a similar small size helps the vegetables cook at the same rate, so nothing turns mushy before the rest is tender.
-
Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and sweat for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring, until soft and translucent but not browned.
~8 min
Sweating gently softens the vegetables and releases their sweetness without browning, which keeps the finished soup pale and delicate.
Sweating Keep the heat medium and stir often; the vegetables should glisten and soften without taking on color. If they start browning, lower the heat.
-
Add the potatoes, 800 ml chicken stock, 1 tsp salt and 0.5 tsp black pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 18 to 20 minutes until the potatoes fall apart when pressed with a spoon.
~20 min
A gentle simmer lets the potatoes soften and release starch into the stock, which thickens the soup and gives it body.
Simmering Aim for small, lazy bubbles rather than a rolling boil, which can break the potatoes apart too soon and cloud the stock. Stir occasionally so nothing sticks.
-
While step 3 cooks
While the soup simmers, roughly chop the chestnuts and toast them in a dry small frying pan over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until the edges turn golden and they smell nutty.
~5 min
Dry toasting drives off moisture and browns the surface, deepening the chestnuts' nutty sweetness and giving them a crisp contrast to the soup.
-
Blend the soup until completely smooth with a blender, or leave it partly chunky if you prefer texture. Stir in 100 ml cream and warm through over low heat for 2 minutes without boiling.
~2 min
Blending hot soup releases starch for a silky body, while adding cream afterwards and avoiding a boil keeps its fresh dairy flavor and prevents curdling.
Blend the soup while it is still hot for the silkiest texture, and add the cream only after blending so it keeps its fresh dairy flavor.
-
Taste and adjust the salt. Ladle into bowls and scatter the toasted chestnuts over the top.
~2 min
