We usually only cook with chestnuts around Christmas but we’ve been trying to use up an extra pack, and they are delicious in this soup recipe by Gill Meller.
Parsnip, roast garlic and chestnut soup – serves 4
- 6 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 bulb of garlic, halved around the middle
- 150g cooked chestnuts
- 10-12 sage leaves
- 1 onion, sliced
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 litre vegetable stock
Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
Spread the parsnips over a roasting tin. Add the garlic bulb, chestnuts, sage, onion and olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper and toss together. Cover the tin tightly with foil and bake for about an hour, shaking the tin now and then, until the parsnips are soft and caramelised.
Remove the foil and pour in the stock, then return to the oven for another 30 minutes.
Ladle everything except the garlic bulb halves into a blender (or a pot if you’re using a hand blender). Squeeze the roasted garlic flesh out of the skins and add to the rest. Whizz the soup until smooth.
Pour the soup into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over a low heat, then cook for 10 minutes. Season to taste, then serve.
(Original recipe from Root Stem Leaf Flower by Gill Meller, Hardie Grant: Quadrille, 2020.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 
That sounds very tasty.