Autumn Soup

[Peachcreek]

1# butter
1# flour
5 lbs cooked pureed sweet squash ( I used Delicata)
4 c. diced onions
2 c. diced carrots
1 c. diced celery
1 c. diced red bell pepper
2 gal. vegetable stock
2 c. dry wild rice
8 oz. dried chestnuts, diced
1 TB fresh minced garlic
1/4 c. fresh chopped parsley
1/4 c. fresh chopped scallions
2 tsp rubbed sage
2 tsp whole dry thyme leaves
2 tsp dry tarragon
2 tsp dresh grated nutmeg
salt
pepper

Saute onions, carrots, celery, and red pepper in bottom of soup till vegetables are clear, stir in flour and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add vegetable stock, bring to boil, add wild rice, garlic, chestnuts, scallions, parsley pureed squash and spices. Simmer for several hours.
Top however you like. Gingered creme fraische works for me.

Served at Bouillon Soup on 10/24/02

[Suzanne]

Oh, YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

A few questions: how did you manage to dice the dried chestnuts? The ones I get are hard as rocks. And if you wanted to substitute fresh or frozen or canned, would you increase the amount? How much? And finally, which pepper or pepper??

[Peachcreek]

The chestnuts I used were peeled whole chestnuts. They come vacuum-packed. I have used chestnuts that come packed in water, but the dry packed ones are superior IMHO. I could'nt think of a better description, sorry! So I guess they aren't really "dried". I would use the same amount regardless of whether they are frozen, canned or vacuum-packed.
To answer your second question, the "pepper" is ground black pepper, or if you don't want little flecks in your soup, use a little ground white pepper. Good luck everyone.

[Mezzaluna]

What a great thread! I made a pot of butternut squash soup recently. It had fewer ingredients, but it's tasty. I sweated chopped onion and celery (had no carrot, or I'd have added that too), seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg and a dash of ground cloves, then added chicken broth. I peeled and diced butternut squash, then roasted it in a hot oven with a light coating of olive oil until it was almost soft and kind of carmelized. Then I added that to the soup and simmered it for a while before pureeing it with an immersion blender. I used a little bit of arrowroot slurry to thicken it, and added a bit of half and half before serving. There's enough left for lunch today.

Thanks to Momoreg for teaching me to make this wonderful soup last October at the East Coast Chef Talk get-together.

Since I'm in a soup group at work, I'll make this for my next offering. I think I'd improve it by reserving some of the vegetables to remain whole, adding them back to the soup after pureeing the rest. I love the idea of adding chestnuts!

[Suzanne]

Originally posted by Peachcreek
1# butter ...

1 c. diced green bell pepper ...

pepper

Saute onions, carrots, celery, and red pepper in bottom of soup till vegetables are clear, ...

Sorry, I guess I didn't make my question clear. In the ingredients, you say green pepper but in the method you say red pepper. Which did you actually use? (My preference would be for pepper, because I'm not fond of cooked pepper. How much of a difference would it make to flavor/appearance?

And thanks, now the chestnut chopping makes sense to me.

[Peachcreek]

Thanks, Suzanne. I fixed it.