Porcini Mushroom and Chestnut Soup
Cooking time: 20 mins
Preparation time: 5 mins
Serves: 4
Vegetarian: Yes
Ingredients:
- 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
- 25g dried Porcini Mushrooms
- 3 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed from stalks
- 30g butter
- 1 vegetable stock cube, made up with 1 litre of boiling water
- 150ml double cream, reserving a couple of tablespoons
- 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
- 435g Chestnut Puree
Method:
1. Fry the thyme, garlic and half of the parsley in the butter for a few minutes on a gentle heat, taking care not to brown the garlic
2. Add the vegetable stock and dried Porcini mushrooms and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
3. Mix in the Chestnut Puree, and heat for a few more minutes before removing from the heat and liquidising.
4. Return back to the heat and stir in the cream, bring the soup back up to boil.
5. Check the seasoning of the soup (depending on the stock, the soup may need additional salt and pepper)
6. Ladle into bowls, drizzling on the remaining cream, and sprinkling the remaining parsley on each.
(If your chestnut puree is really sweet, you might like to drizzle some lemon juice over the top of the soup to counteract the sweetness.)