Velvety smooth with a savory taste like hazelnuts and potatoes dusted with maple sugar, Potage aux Marrons is a simple French chestnut soup recipe that tastes more complicated than it is to make. If you're like me, it might be the fall tradition you never knew you were missing.
In this post I'll show you how to buy the best chestnuts and peel them like chefs do. After that we'll go over a few simple ways you can make a delicious soup that honors the past, present and future of a very special wild food.
Types of Chestnuts
Chestnut varieties can be confusing. While all chestnuts will be in the genus Castanea, there's many varieties, including hybrids. Chinese chestnuts are the most common you'll see in a grocery store. European Chestnuts are generally larger in size and give a better yield.
Due to the blight true American chestnuts (Castanea dentata) are rare and must be foraged. If you're looking to buy chestnuts, Trader Joes Italian chestnuts are $6.99 per pound compared to $12.99 or more for the Chinese variety. That's more nut for half the price!
If you want to grow chestnut trees, a cold-hearty variety is now sold as seed in Minnesota through The Experimental Farm Network.
A creation of the now defunct Badgersett Research Corporation, they're a "neo-hybrid" combination of Chinese, American, Japanese, Seguin and European chestnut species bred to resist the Chestnut blight.
Steamed Chestnuts
Everyone knows you can roast and peel them, but roasted chestnuts are usually for eating straight from the shell as they're fully cooked. Boiled or steamed chestnuts are briefly cooked so they can be peeled and used for general cooking.
Besides scoring they can also be cut in half-a great technique from my friend Clay Bowers who forages American Chestnuts in Michigan.
How to Make Chestnut Soup
Steaming or roasting chestnuts is the most labor intensive part. Once they're peeled, you cook some onions, add stock and the nuts, simmer and puree until smooth. The images below describe the process.
The nuts have a mild flavor so only onion is added to the soup. Adding Carrot, celery or other things can hide their flavor. Less is more here.
Serve the soup garnished with fresh chestnuts and spoons of creme fraiche or sour cream.
Variations
Porcini and Chestnut Soup
Born from the Tuscan landscape where porcini grow symbiotically with wild chestnut trees, Zuppa di Castagne e Porcini is a more savory version than the Potage aux Marrons. A special way to use up those dried porcini and king boletes.
To make it, add ½ oz dried porcini mushrooms to the stock, thinning it with a little extra stock or cream if it gets too thick after pureeing. Garnish with sauteed or marinated fresh or dried porcini if you can, and threads of extra virgin olive oil. For a real treat, melt a thin slice of porcini butter on top of the soup.
Adding Caramelized Onions
Substitute caramelized onions (use the same starting weight of onions) for a layered flavor. This can be combined with the vegan and porcini versions.
Roasted Chestnut Soup
The perfect way to use up leftover roasted nuts from a holiday gathering. It will have a light smoky flavor if they were cooked on a wood fire.
Vegetarian or Vegan Chestnut Soup
Substitute coconut milk for the cream and use vegetable broth or nut milk.
More Wild Food from France
- Jean Louis Palladin's Black Truffle Ice Cream
- Jacques Chibois Mushroom Carbonara
- Rabbit Chasseur with Wild Mushrooms
- Poulet Forestiere (Chicken with Wild Mushroom Sauce)
French Cream of Chestnut Soup (Potage aux Marrons)
Equipment
- 1 3 quart soup pot
- 1 Cast iron pan with lid for steaming the nuts
- 1 Blender or hand blender
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs Italian chestnuts 1 lb for the soup, ½ lb for garnishing. Or use 15 oz roasted, peeled chestnuts.
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 6 oz diced yellow sweet onion 1 medium onion
- 4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- ½ cup heavy cream or half and half
- ¼ cup marsala wine or sherry optional
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly ground or grated nutmeg to taste
- sliced cut chives or fresh parsley to garnish, optional
Spice Bouquet (Optional)
- 2 cloves
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 2 small fresh thyme sprigs
Instructions
Steam and peel the chestnuts
- Keeping each nut flat-side down, score each chestnut with an X. Alternately, they can be cut in half. Put the chestnuts in a 12 inch skillet with 1 cup of water, cover, bring to a boil, turn the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.
- Remove the chestnuts a handful at a time and peel them, keeping the unpeeled nuts together in the pan to stay warm.
- Set aside 10 ounces of nuts to puree into the soup. Reserve about 5 ounces of chestnuts (1-2 nuts per serving) cut into bite-sized pieces and reserve to garnish the finished soup.
Build the soup
- Melt the butter in a 3 quart stock pot and add the onions. Cook on medium heat until cooked and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the marsala or sherry and cook until the pan is nearly dry.
- Add the chicken stock, herb bouquet, and chestnuts. Cover the pot, bring to a gentle simmer and cook for twenty minutes. Discard the herb bouquet.
- Working in batches if needed, puree the soup in a blender until very smooth.
- Add the cream at the end, season the soup to taste with a few gratings of nutmeg, a splash of maple syrup to taste, and kosher salt. Stir, double check the seasoning again and adjust until it tastes good to you.
Serving
- Serve the soup in small bowls like the luxury it is. A 6-8 ounce portion is plenty. Garnish with dollops of creme fraiche, chopped cooked chestnuts and a sprinkle of chives.
Video
Notes
- 2 lbs of Italian chestnuts should yield about 20 ounces of finished nuts after peeling. Chinese chestnuts will have a slightly lower yield.
- At holiday gatherings, I like to serve warm soups in a shot glass for larger parties. Loosen the soup with half and half or another liquid to make it easier to sip.
- Double the amount of cream for a richer soup.
Deborah
Thank you for this! I made this with some fresh apple, fresh rosemary, and a little fresh thyme. Delicious!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Deborah. I have a shipment of chestnuts coming in tomorrow and this will be the first thing I make.
Anne Hansley
Managed to outsmart the bears on our mountain and the wormies that can hide inside the nuts to thankfully get a bunch of Chinese chestnuts for us. I finally roasted them right this time. Soaked for 24 hours ahead of roasting to start the sprouting process and healthful enzymes and tried this recipe today. It's pretty simple and perfect. It turned out very well. It's an elegant, yet unusual autumn soup to serve. Thanks!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Anne. Congrats on beating the bears!
Imogen
C'est vraiment excellent! We thoroughly enjoyed this sweet and nutty soup on a cold night like tonight. Peeling the chestnuts still took a bit of elbow grease (I managed to get chestnut stuck painfully deep under my nails haha) and quite some time, but I love your tip about leaving them on the heat - definitely made it a lot easier than it could have been. Will certainly make again!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Imogen. I'm so glad you liked it.
Renee West
so I recently got the TJ's chestnuts and did not roast them until about 2 weeks later. (did not refrigerate). A good number of them inside had gross black/green powdery mold. Is this because I waited too long to cook them and didn't refrigerate? They weren't refrigerated at the store. Thanks.
Alan Bergo
Oh no. And yes, this happens with chestnuts. They should always be stored in the fridge. Especially if they’re fresh and large like the European marrons they can mold. I don’t understand why stores leave them at room temperature. I called my local coop yesterday to see if I could buy what was left of their stock and they’d thrown them away/composted them as the same happened to them. Sorry that happened.
Wendy
Tried this soup tonight, so good!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Wendy, glad you liked it.
Nikos
I was google-ing Lazanki on YT and found your recipe there and stayed for a few more vids. One of the the chestnut soup which will be on my christmas table!
Being half-Polish I was amazed that I've never tasted lazanki with mushrooms.
Fun fact "łazanki" are writen with letter Ł, which is not L. Ł sound like W in washington for example. So its Wazanki.
Alan Bergo
Hey Thanks Nikos.
Kim Quinn
This recipe sounds amazing. My question is this is for freshly cooked chestnuts. What if that is not an option? I need to purchase vacuum sealed italian roasted chestnuts and want to buy enough for 30 people.
We are having a Loaf and Ladle party and this is my contribution.
How many ounces should I purchase please? I know, preroasted, 😶😔but everything else will be as you said. Please give me an amount, if able. Would be so very grateful.
Thank you!
Alan Bergo
Hey no problem. You can substitute pre-cooked, peeled chestnuts for the whole unpeeled chestnuts called for in the recipe. I’d start with 1.25 lbs. 10 oz for the soup, 4 oz to garnish.
Don Blackert
Alan: I have nearly 100 Chinese chestnut trees ranging from about 10 to 30 years old. I originally planted them to sell the nuts but realistically they mostly go fatten up the local deep and turkey population. We eat them a lot of different ways, mostly roasted as the starting point. We tried making chestnut flour this year for the first time and eventually ended up with a nice fine flour consistency, but it took a lot of effort to get it to that point. I think the problem might have been that I started with roasted chestnuts (sort of hard to grind into a fine powder). Do you start with steamed chestnuts? How do you get them to a fine flour like consistency? Thanks.
Also, as a side note, I have found that chestnuts freeze very well raw in the shell. They actually seem easier to peel after roasting if they have been frozen. Freezing extends the season indefinitely. I just put them in zip lock bags and toss in the freezer until needed, then let them thaw completely, score the shell, and roast as usual - we like 30-35 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven.
Alan Bergo
Hey Don, I spoke to my friend Clay Bowers who makes a lot of his own flour from wild chestnuts. He uses a Vitamix and that's what I'll be using this year. The nuts are traditionally smoke/dried for like 6 weeks over wood before being shelled and ground to flour in a mill. They're just hard like rocks and you need them completely dried, as well as a grinding tool that has a lot of power. Grind, sift, grind again until it's as fine as possible. Clay also steams his after cutting in half, then dries them. That means the chestnuts are in smaller pieces and will break down easier.
Eva
I'm from Italy and my friend has a chestnut tree in their yard I pick from. This is my new favorite way to cook them! We added extra cream so it could be sipped and even my toddler loved it.
Brendan Howell
I live in Europe and have discovered this year that there are actually a bunch of chestnut trees in my neighborhood. It was not a huge haul but I got a few bowls worth and tried roasting a few. But I had a very hard time getting the inner-skin off. I also tried boiling but that seemed even worse. It just does not want to come off and the taste is overloaded with tannins.
These chestnuts are a native european variety but not the bigger Maron types. I will probably try your steaming suggestion but I wonder if you or any other readers have suggestions for getting the inner-hulls off easily or if this is just an annoying trait of this variety of nut. Any ideas for easier peeling?
And as an aside - I really enjoy this blog so much. It's one of the few highlights on the internet these days. Thanks for all the hard work you do to make it happen.
Alan Bergo
Hey Thanks Brendan. I've worked with a number of varieties including a few different hybrids. Some of them just suck to peel. What I would suggest is that you make chestnut flour. Dry them slow, crack, winnow as best you can to remove the inner skin. It's often much easier to remove after they're dried. Once they're dried, shelled and winnowed, grind them in a vitamix blender, sift, grind again and you'll have the flour.
Richard Stevens
What about starting from dried chestnuts?
Alan Bergo
Great question, and one I'll be able to speak to better after I process the 20lbs of Chinese ones I just got into flour.
Chestnut Flour
I liked the consistency of the soup using 10 oz of peeled chestnuts. If you have chestnut flour, you'll need to approximate 10 oz of cooked chestnut paste, I would start with about 5 oz of flour, adding some liquid until you get a thick paste of around 10 oz in weight. You could also cook chestnut flour into a paste with liquid to mimic commercial chestnut paste. From there, I would add the paste to the soup until you like the taste. As the flour will soak up moisture, it could be thicker so you'll want to adjust the consistency with liquid or cream a bit.
Dried Chestnuts
If you have whole chestnuts, you could simmer them in the stock you'll use for the soup (I'd shoot for an hour at least), then weigh 10 oz and use them as you would fresh. A strong blender like a vitamix will make short work of them, even if they're whole.
If you try it out with dried chestnuts let me know how it goes and I'll update the recipe notes with your experience.
Richard Stevens
I added 5 oz of chicken stock to 5 oz of chestnut flour (homemade) and it created a great paste. I made the soup from that and it was amazing. I also added some freeze dried wine cap mushrooms. The thickness is just right! I took some dried chestnut pieces and boiled them in chicken stock for 1 hour as suggested. I added these to the bowl of soup at the end with some wine cap mushrooms and its amazing! The chunks of chestnut in the soup really add a nice texture to the whole experience.
Alan Bergo
Hey Richard, sounds like a fun variation. Thanks for sharing.
Ravenna Helson
Loved the simplicity of this chestnut soup recipe! I added a little fresh thyme. I had good results scoring only one cut rather than a cross.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Ravenna. Glad it worked for you. I just served the rest of the 3 batches I made this week to my family and it evaporated.
Logan Lewis
SO GOOD! Made with Chinese hybrid variety, used a pumpkin seed cream to make it vegan, and used a splash of wild grape vinegar and maple syrup in place of the wine! 🤤🤤🤤
Seasonal staple moving forward! Thanks Alan!!!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks for sharing the adjustments you made. Glad it worked for you.
John M Jones
At least with Chinese chestnuts cutting in half, steaming or microwaving will let you squeeze with needlenosed pliers to slip off shuck and the fuzzy layer, as long as you do it while still pretty warm.
The recipe sounds great!
Janie
Loving these videos! Thanks for all the excellent content. And I must know… cork+paperclip=thermometer???
Alan Bergo
Thanks Janie. Ok, so chefs often use a cake tester for testing the doneness of vegetables, fish, and also as a thermometer. To use it as a thermometer you insert it into something, then touch it to a sensitive part of your lip, like the underside or inside. Thin metal conducts heat lightning fast and it can actually be more dependable than a digital thermometer, once you practice with it for a while. It was the only thing I used to take the temperature of leg roasts from any four-legged animal during my tenure at Heartland in St. Paul, where I cooked about 10-20 lbs of roast almost daily, for 4 years. A paper clip stuck through a wine cork is just a cheap cake tester. Also a fun way to save expensive corks.