Try Adding Chestnuts to Vegetable Soup!

thelatebloomer | May 15, 2015 | Reply

Try adding chestnuts to vegetable soup! This is quite possibly one of the best veggie soups I’ve ever made, and I’ve made a lot.

Try adding Chestnuts to Vegetable Soup! - chestnuts

Organic Dried Raw Chestnuts

I bought a bag of organic dried raw chestnuts recently. I’ve seen them before but, not growing up around chestnut trees (other than my neighbor’s Chinese Chestnut tree which smelled loathsome a good part of the year), and hardly having eaten them my whole life, I passed them by. In fact, I couldn’t really tell you what they taste like. This time, I picked up the bag and the description said not only are they low in fat and high in nutrients, but, that they were great in soups. If you follow Late Bloomer, you know I am a 20-minute cook (recipes can’t take more than 20 minutes to make). Soup I can do!

Try adding chestnuts to Vegetable Soup - carrots

Kaye holding sample of her 17-pound rainbow carrot harvest

My frig was nearly empty except for my carrot harvest (what’s left of it), green onions and a purple cabbage. On the counter, I have my last batch of spring cherry tomatoes from my overwintered vines (which got pulled on Saturday), and my potato harvest and the 1 1/2 heads of my homegrown garlic, which is all that is left from my garlic harvest last year. Good thing this year’s harvest will be ready soon!

So, here’s how I came up with my soup, which is perfect for a chilly, cloudy, after-the-big-rain day. (Did you hear Los Angeles got a good rain yesterday with lightning, thunder and hail?)

Kaye’s Fresh Vegetable & Chestnut Soup

Kaye’s Fresh Vegetable & Chestnut Soup

Ingredients (in order of appearance)

1 c. organic dried raw chestnuts, soaked 1 hour

2 large green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

4 medium to large rainbow carrots, chopped

1 pound cherry tomatoes chopped

6 small purple or red potatoes, cubed

1/2 head purple (red) cabbage, cubed

fresh thyme & oregano leaves & 1 bay leaf

salt & pepper to taste

*all ingredients except for chestnuts, red cabbage & bay leaf were from my garden

Add 3 c. water to large soup pan, bring to a gentle boil, add chestnuts, reduce to a simmer. As the chestnuts are simmering, I prepared all the vegetables one-by-one and added them in the order above. In the time it took to prepare and add them all, the soup was halfway done. I simmered for another 20 minutes (chestnuts need approximately 40 minutes of simmering) and added the fresh herbs, salt and pepper at the end. Add more water for thinner consistency. Broth will be reddish from the cabbage.

The pleasant surprise is the sweetness the chestnuts add. Please let me know if you try it! Enjoy! – Kaye

Try adding chestnuts to Vegetable Soup! - purchase

Rainbow Carnival Carrot Seed Blend

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