Comments on: Sweet Potato, Chestnut, and Bacon Soup

By: Annemarie

Annemarie — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:56:27 +0000

Ah, see, you’ve also answered my question: what do you do with the bagful of chestnuts picked up while on a walk through the woods. Question answered.

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:46:29 +0000

Ah, so *this* is what I can make with those chestnuts at the farmers market :). Looks great!

By: chefjp

chefjp — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:22:13 +0000

I really enjoyed the recipe. I make something similar to this but use a combination of sweet potatoes & butternut squash.

By: brilynn

brilynn — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:36:56 +0000

It has bacon, BACON! It’s amazing.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:38:43 +0000

Ramona – Your soup looks fantastic!

Liz – I buy them pre-cooked, pre-shelled, and vacuum-packed. I’ve cooked them myself, but I hate shelling them, and the vacuum-packed ones really are quite good.

Julie – I hate shelling chestnuts! I always end up cutting myself under my fingernails, it’s dreadful. So I go for the pre-cooked, pre-shelled, vacuum-packed kind. They’re very tasty, and way, way less painful.

My grandmother seems to have no problem shelling chestnuts, but I haven’t managed to figure out her secret yet!

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:33:05 +0000

This looks wonderful. Do you have any hints on shelling chestnuts? Last year I tried making a soup that used about a pound of chestnuts and all that chestnut shelling was agony. Even still I love chestnuts enough that the first thing I think when I read Katie’s question is: “How do you find a neighbor who will deposit a mountain of chestnuts on your doorstep?” That’s a good neighbor to have.

By: BrownbagLiz

BrownbagLiz — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:30:44 +0000

This looks fantastic. Did you cook the chestnuts or buy them precooked? I’ve never cooked them myself because I’m normally not a huge fan, but it seemed like they would go really well in this.

By: novalis

novalis — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:02:07 +0000

Lisa, I invented this recipe myself. I was inspired by a sweet potato, lemongrass, and coconut milk soup I saw somewhere — but I also have never heard of Jamie Oliver.

Googling reveals that he does have a similar recipe, except: (a) it’s with squash, not sweet potato, (b) it’s not a soup, and (c) it doesn’t have roasted garlic or sage.

That just shows that great minds think alike.

By: Ramona

Ramona — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:12:59 +0000

We must have soup esp! While shopping for ingredients for my submition to your food even (garlic!), I bought a few sweet potatoes and pancetta for a soup. I’ve got some fage to top it off.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:31:11 +0000

Nabeela – Finally!

Lisa – What is? I’m not familiar with any of Jamie Oliver’s recipes, to my knowledge. Does he make a similar soup?

Katie – This is turning into a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sort of thing, it seems. You’re absolutely right.

mr. ed – Yeah, I can definitely see that working, too.

Lydia – Black cardamom or even smoke powder or liquid smoke might work, too.