Here is the first course of my Christmas dinner, a chestnut-pear soup. I know it’s already quite late for presenting my Christmas recipes, but better late than never! I think the chestnuts and the pears blend in perfectly with each other and the subtly hot spiciness of the chili rounds off the soup wonderfully.
The soup is cooked in next to no time and can also be prepared a day ahead. Just store it in the fridge until you heat it up gently.
In order to get attuned to what is yet to come I want to tell you what the other courses will be. I’ve prepared two different main dishes so you can choose for yourself what you want to cook. The first dish is a beef filet with spicy chocolate sauce, tender vegetables and potato balls and the second dish is a gently roasted turkey breast in a marinade of ginger and vanilla, served with carrots, cranberry sauce and tagliatelle. My dessert for your Christmas dinner is a chocolate-gingerbread mousse with orange sauce.
All this will be posted in due time before Christmas as my posts will be published more frequently now! So don’t forget to stop by to get the other recipes as well!
Now, here is the recipe for the chestnut-pear soup.
Chestnut-Pear Soup
Serves 4:
½ onion
1 tablespoon oil
½ lb (200-300 g) potatoes
½ pear
½ red chili or ¼ teaspoon chili powder
½ lb (250 g) riced chestnuts
2 ½ cups (600 ml) vegetable stock
½ cup pear cider or white wine
½ cup whipping cream
some whipped cream for serving
for serving (optional):
½ pear (cut into paper-thin slices)
some oil
Peel and chop the onions. Peel the potatoes and the pear and cut them into ½ inch (1 cm) pieces. Deseed the chili and chop it. Fry the onion in the hot oil. Add the potatoes, pear, chili (only add as much chili as to make the soup lightly hot), riced chestnuts, the vegetable stock and pear cider and cook until the potatoes are cooked. Add the cream and purée the soup, using an immersion blender. Serve with a blob of whipped cream and perhaps with some thin slices of pears which have been fried in hot oil.
My Christmas Dinner:
Chestnut-Pear Soup
* * *
Beef-Filet with Chocolate Gravy
or
Turkey Breast with Ginger and Vanilla
* * *
Chocolate-Gingerbread Mousse with Orange Sauce
And here is the recipe for printing:
- [b]Serves 4:[/b]
- ½ onion
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ½ lb (200-300 g) potatoes
- ½ pear
- ½ red chili or ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ lb (250 g) riced chestnuts
- 2 ½ cups (600 ml) vegetable stock
- ½ cup pear cider or white wine
- ½ cup whipping cream
- some whipped cream for serving
- [br]
- [b]for serving (optional):[/b]
- ½ pear (cut into paper-thin slices)
- some oil
- Peel and chop the onions. Peel the potatoes and the pear and cut them into ½ inch (1 cm) pieces. Deseed the chili and chop it. Fry the onion in the hot oil. Add the potatoes, pear, chili (only add as much chili as to make the soup lightly hot), riced chestnuts, the vegetable stock and pear cider and cook until the potatoes are cooked. Add the cream and purée the soup, using an immersion blender. Serve with a blob of whipped cream and perhaps with some thin slices of pears which have been fried in hot oil.
