The soup with chickpeas and dried chestnuts is a tasty, fragrant, and easy-to-make family recipe. Soups are a real remedy when it’s cold, not only because they warm you up but also because they are healthy. This soup is simple to prepare, can be served as a single dish and will warm our evenings with flavor. The presence of fennel seeds gives this dish a truly unique aroma and flavor. Fennel seeds can be easily found in supermarkets among the spices.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 12 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Chickpeas
- 5.3 oz Dried Chestnuts
- 1/2 Onion
- 2 leaves Bay Leaves
- to taste Sage
- to taste Rosemary
- 1 pinch Fennel Seeds
- to taste Coarse Salt
- to taste Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Preparation
In a large soup bowl, soak the chickpeas and dried chestnuts in water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and let them sit for 12 to 16 hours.
After the time has passed, rinse them well under running water and place them in a tall pot with enough water for cooking.
Bring to a boil and remove the foam, due to impurities, that will gradually form with a skimmer.
After this, lower the heat, add the spices, chopped onion, cover, and let cook on low heat until the chickpeas and chestnuts are soft and tender.
While the soup is cooking, prepare the bread croutons.Heat a grill pan and grill our slices of stale bread on both sides. When ready, drizzle them with a little oil (you can also rub them with garlic, if you like), cut them into cubes, and set aside.
Salt the chickpeas and chestnuts only at the end of cooking, stir, turn off the heat, and let it rest for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, put 1 ladleful of cooking water and three heaping tablespoons of chickpeas and chestnuts in a blender and blend (it will give our soup a delicious creamy texture).
Remove the remaining excess cooking water from the soup (do not throw it away, as it can be used to cook pasta), add the blended mixture, season with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, stir, and serve with the seasoned bread croutons.Extra idea. We can also use fresh chestnuts; in this case, peel them and cook them in water with a pinch of coarse salt for about 20 minutes (a little less if they are very small) but without making them mushy because otherwise, it would be very difficult to remove the “skin” still attached to the chestnut fruit. Cook the chickpeas with the spices as described above; after 30 minutes, also add the chestnuts and finish cooking.
