Creamy Chestnut & Mushroom Soup
An easy, Italian-inspired soup for the holidays
Hello, everyone. Here in the U.S., everyone is gearing up for Thanksgiving week. My friend Sheryl has the best tradition: The day before the big feast, she invites people for a pie-making party. She makes all the dough ahead of time so when friends arrive they can get right to work making their favorite pies. It’s a late afternoon affair so a light supper is in order. So, of course, I offered to bring a pot of soup!
This Creamy Chestnut and Mushroom Soup is a great light meal the day before or a starter for the Thanksgiving meal. It was inspired by a lunch I had in the countryside of Puglia, Italy, on a few Octobers ago. My husband and I took a long walk starting at the charming village of Cisternino. We followed a trail that wound through olive groves and stopped to watch as locals gently tapped the branches to gather olives onto a tarp on the ground. After a few hours, we had worked up quite an appetite and so were delighted to come upon a bustling trattoria in the midst of Sunday lunch. We felt like the luckiest people ever when they squeezed us into a small table in the corner.
It was porcini season and the waiter brought over a basket of freshly foraged mushrooms so we could point to the ones we wanted. “Subito!” said the waiter, a lovely Italian phrase that means “right away.” In other words, the food would be promptly delivered to the table. Soon, a dish of wood-fired oven roasted mushrooms scattered with rosemary arrived at our table. The dessert course also made a lasting impression on me: a platter of roasted chestnuts that we ate with our hands, their sweet aroma wafting from the slits in the dark brown shells.
Later that year, while working on recipes for my book, the memory of roasted mushrooms and chestnuts became the foundation of this soup. After much tinkering, I was excited to discover that the sweetness of the chestnuts perfectly complemented the earthiness of the mushrooms. And, that I could create a great-tasting soup using ordinary mushrooms from the grocery store and packets of already roasted and peeled chestnuts.
Brain Health Retreat Update!
of ViaRosaItaly. I am looking forward to seeing one of my very favorite Italians again—my co-host Angelo, a native Pulgliese who lives in a trulli house in Cisternino. All my other brain health retreats in 2025 are fully booked and this Puglia trip is filling quickly. Learn more here and book a spot.
I’ll be returning to Puglia in April to host Brain Health, Food, and Fun, a 6-day retreat in partnership with
Mushrooms and chestnuts are rich in antioxidants
The brain health attributes of mushrooms have been well-documented, which explains why they’re increasingly being considered a neuroprotective food. In a nutshell, they provide two soil-derived brain health nutrients we don’t get from most foods—ergothioneine and glutathione. In addition, mushrooms are one of the few food sources of vitamin D. Another bioactive substance—hercicin A—found in lion’s mane mushrooms has been shown to promote nerve cell growth, especially in the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain.
Chestnuts, it turns out, are tree nuts that are especially rich in antioxidants. Two of these brain health nutrients—gallic acid and ellagic acid—become even more concentrated after they are cooked. Chestnuts are also packed with fiber, which makes this soup a fitting starter to a holiday feast. Eating a fiber-rich starter, such as these Orange and Feta Snacking Olives or a cup of this soup, serves to help stabilize blood sugar from the entire meal.
Creamy Chestnut and Mushroom Soup
To make this soup, you’ll simmer cooked chestnuts (the kind that come in a can or a pouch) with chopped mushrooms and onions, then blend it all into a creamy soup. Snipped chives, poppy seeds, and toasted chestnuts make a pretty topping, and you can add a swirl of cashew cream if you like.