The rustic soup with chickpeas and dried chestnuts is a tasty family recipe, fragrant and easy to make. Soups are a true blessing 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 up our evenings with taste. 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
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Chickpeas
- 5 1/4 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 leave them for 12 to 16 hours.
After the time has passed, rinse them well under running water and put them in a tall pot with enough water for cooking.
Bring to a boil and remove with a slotted spoon the foam, due to impurities, that gradually appears.
After this, lower the heat, add the spices, the chopped onion, cover, and let cook with the lid 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 they are ready, drizzle them with a little oil (you can also rub them with garlic if you like), cut them into cubes, and set them aside.
Salt the chickpeas and chestnuts only at the end of cooking, stir, turn off the heat and let rest for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, put a ladleful of cooking water and three tablespoons of chickpeas and chestnuts in a blender and blend (this will give a delicious creamy consistency to our soup).
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 and a pinch of coarse salt for about 20 minutes (a little less if they are very small) but without letting them mash as 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, add the chestnuts and bring to cooking.
