Roasted chestnut and mushroom soup – The Tasty Chilli (2024)

Looking for a recipe for a comforting bowl of fall or winter soup? This hearty roasted chestnut and mushroom soup recipe is a real autumn and winter favourite.

Chestnut soup with mushrooms

You know autumn has started when the leaves of the trees are slowly turning into the most beautiful hues of yellow, red and brown. The ground is covered with spiky yellow-green husks that reveal their ripe seeds, or sweet chestnuts within. Already as a child I could not wait for autumn to come around to start looking for chestnuts in the forest. And still to this day, I keep following that tradition.

Autumn is also the time street vendors take out their portable grills and start roasting and selling chestnuts on every corner in the larger cities or at Christmas markets. With the smell of roasting chestnuts, among other things, you know that Christmas is just around the corner.

I always used to either roast chestnuts or even eat them raw, which is only for the true fans of the bitter taste, since the inner skin hardly comes off and can taste really powerful when not roasted. Only recently I discovered the lovely dishes that can be prepared with chestnuts. Due to their sweet aroma they are used a lot in sweet dishes, but in my opinion, they can easily be used to add a sweet touch to a savoury dish.

Have you ever tried a pesto made with chestnuts? Then try this arugula pesto with roasted chestnuts, it’s just divine and a great alternative to a regular pesto sauce. And what about this cauliflower and chestnut soup with thyme.

Which chestnuts are edible?

Most people will buy their chestnuts at a local market or in a supermarket which is when you can be sure they’re edible. When foraging for chestnuts in a forest be sure to only take the edible ones. The husks are covered with very sharp, flexible spikes and carry two to three nuts inside. It is best to squeeze them open with the shoes on your feet.

More information on how to recognise the difference between an edible chestnut and a poisonous one can be found here and here.

How to roast chestnuts

Roasting chestnuts can either be done in an oven, in a skillet on the stove or over a grill with hot coals. As a child, my parents had a wood burning fire place. I would wrap each chestnut in tin foil and I would place them in the middle of the fire for about 10 minutes. As you notice, there are lots of different ways to roast chestnuts.

Nowadays, when I am at home, I prefer roasting chestnuts in a pan on the stove. So what are the steps to take? Either read more about it in this post about how to roast chestnuts at home, or read the following steps:

1. Use a pairing knife to score one side of each chestnut over the entire length. Just make an incision through the outer skin of the nut.
2. Place a skillet on medium heat and dry roast the chestnuts for 10 – 15 minutes, depending on the thickness, until the nut is nice and soft. Make sure to stir regularly in order not to burn the skin.
3. Place the hot nuts in a separate bowl and leave to cool for half a minute. Start peeling the skin when the chestnuts are still hot otherwise it will be difficult to remove the skin. So work carefully.
4. The outer skin will come off easily. However, depending on the nut, the inner skin might be more difficult. Don’t worry too much if the whole skin doesn’t come off properly, it won’t alter the taste of the soup.

Roasting the chestnuts yourself before using them in a soup is a bit of work but so rewarding. The roasting brings out the sweet flavour of the nut which will add a bigger flavour dimension to the soup. So count on some time to peel the chestnuts, ask other family members to help you, or let the children have fun peeling them.

How to make mushroom and chestnut soup?

Note: All the exact quantities of the ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Take a medium sized pot and warm a tablespoon of olive oil in it on medium heat. Add chopped onions and minced garlic and sweat for a couple of minutes. Add the peeled and roasted chestnuts as well as the chopped mushrooms and fry for 3 minutes, while stirring occasionally.

Tip: I normally use olive oil for cooking, but feel free to use any other cooking oil or butter according to personal preference.

Add stock, bay leaves and thyme in the pot, cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes. I have used vegetable stock for this chestnut and mushroom soup recipe, however chicken stock will do really well as well. You can either use homemade stock, store bought stock, or just water with chicken or vegetable stock cubes. Count on 2 stock cubes per litre of water.

When the soup has finished cooking, use a hand held electric mixer to mix it in the pot or ladle everything into a table top blender to make the soup really nice and smooth.

I have used dried thyme for this recipe, but if you have fresh thyme at home you can use a few sprigs of that instead. The thyme flavour will be more intense than with dried thyme, so make your choice according to personal preference.

Optionally, you can add some thyme to the butter fried mushroom garnish. It provides this chestnut mushroom soup with some nice extra flavour. Thinly slice the mushrooms, then melt some butter in a skillet and sauté them on medium heat until golden brown on both sides. I prefer to fry mushrooms in unsalted butter instead of olive oil. Add a few slices to each bowl just before serving and season with freshly ground black pepper

How to serve

Serve the soup hot with some freshly chopped parsley, basil or thyme leaves and farmhouse bread or french loaf. The optional sautéed in butter mushroom slices can also add some extra flavour to this recipe.

More Fall soup recipes to try

• Cauliflower and chestnut soup with thyme
• Carrot and ginger soup
• Carrot and red lentil soup
• Creamy yellow pepper soup
• Butternut soup with orange
• Eggplant soup with roasted chickpeas

Did you make this recipe? I’d love to hear how it turned out! Leave a comment with rating below and share a picture with the hashtag #thetastychilli and tag me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Inspired to prepare this recipe? Don’t forget to pin it to your Pinterest boards for later: