When I’m not writing for Judaica WebStore, you’ll probably find me covered in flour or hovering over the stove, wooden spoon in hand. I’m obsessed with all things food, and few things make me as happy as dreaming up fantastic new food ideas and bringing them to life!
In our home, celebrations are marked with food. Sometimes, when the fridge is full of fresh, seasonal produce, food is the reason we’re celebrating! The Tu B’Shvat Seder is one of my family’s favourite traditions – so when I got married and started hosting my own, it naturally became Seder and Supper. We (gladly) drink our way through four glasses of Israeli wine, indulge in a spread of ripe, fragrant fresh fruits and home-made toasted, flavoured nuts and share a delicious meal with family and friends!
Tu B’Shvat is the perfect opportunity to celebrate natural, fabulous fruit, and I love challenging my culinary creativity. When it came to planning the menu for Tu B’Shvat, I wanted to go one better than simply serving fruit for dessert. I wanted to spin a special twist over our dinner, so that the whole meal would exude fabulous fruitiness!
After lots of deliberation, I came up with a North-African-inspired main course of chicken legs slow-cooked with onions and apricots and beef stewed with onions, raisins and prunes, served over cranberry-pistachio couscous and almond saffron rice with honey-roasted veg and a hot olive dish on the side. And as delicious as that was (apparently – I’m vegetarian), it was the first course that stole the show: chestnut soup.
This extraordinary soup is both decadently creamy and satisfyingly earthy. It’s also almost sinfully easy to make, as pre-cooked vacuum-packed chestnuts take away the hard work of roasting and peeling the nuts yourself! It’s as impressive as it is unusual, and sure to be a winner with your family too.
Chestnut Soup (serves 6 ~ Parve)
Ingredients
• 2 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
• 1 small punnet mushrooms, finely sliced
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 4 x 100g packets vac-packed chestnuts
• Boiling water or light vegetable stock, to cover (approx 800ml – 1l)
• Sprig of thyme (optional, but I chuck it in everything)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
• In a medium pan, heat the oil over a medium flame. Add onions, garlic and mushrooms and cook until softened but not coloured.
• Add chestnuts and potato (and thyme if using). Cover with water/stock and bring to the boil. Cover and leave to simmer until the potato is cooked through, approx 15 minutes.
• Blend until smooth (remove thyme first) and season. Serve hot, probably with croutons or garlic bread. Ta da!!
It’s literally that easy! If you’re not making a Tu B’Shvat Seder this year, make a pot of this soup anyway – it’s seriously velvety, smooth and delicious and just perfect for long, cold winter nights!
