Celeriac and Chestnut soup

 What you need

• Ca 200g of chestnuts
• A celeriac root
• 2 medium onions
• 1 carrot
• Butter
• Apple juice ca 100ml
• Chicken or vegetable stock ca 400ml
• Salt, pepper
• Ca 150ml cream
• Thyme

Equipment

• Sauce pan
• Blender

How you do it

Prepare the chestnuts

• Put the chestnuts into a bowl and soak in water for ca 1 hour
• With a knife, cut each nut on the flat side
• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Put the nuts into an oven tray and bake for 30min
• Afterwards: let the nuts cool down by removing them from the oven tray.
• Peel the nuts and put aside

Prepare the soup

• Peel the onions, the carrot and the celeriac root and cut it all into small chunks
• In the sauce pan take ca 50g of butter and heat it up. Add the thyme
• When the butter is molten add the onions first and sauté until translucent 
• Then add the carrot and mix well for ca 2 min
• Add the celeriac root and chestnuts
• If necessary add a little butter
• Mix for ca 2 min and add some pepper and salt
• Add the 400ml stock
• When it boils reduce the heat to a simmer, put the lid on and let it cook for ca 30min, stirring occasionally
• Add the apple juice. Bring to the boil and let it cook for 5min.
• Take off the cooker and let it cool down for ca 10min.
• With a handheld blender blend the soup really well so that it is entirely smooth
• Put back on the cooker and heat up until it boils
• Add the cream and cook for another 5min