Latte macchiato of winter root vegetables with caramelized thyme and chestnuts

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 250 g celeriac
• 250 g parsley root(s)
• 500 g Jerusalem artichoke
• 100 g potatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 shallots
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 ½ liters vegetable broth
• 100 ml whipped cream
• 100 ml milk
• Salt
• pepper
• chili flakes
• 1 dashes lemon juice
• 250 g chestnut(s), peeled
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 18 sprigs of thyme

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Total time approx. 40 minutes

Clean and peel the celery, parsley roots, Jerusalem artichokes, and potatoes, and cut them into 1 cm pieces. Score the bay leaves several times. Peel and finely dice the shallots. Sauté the shallots in 2 tablespoons of butter until translucent. Add the vegetables and sauté for about 3 minutes, stirring. Add the vegetable stock and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Remove the bay leaf. Season with salt, pepper, chili flakes, and lemon juice, and blend finely with the cream. Pass half through a fine sieve and return it to the rest. For the thyme chestnuts, pick the leaves from the thyme and roughly chop the chestnuts. Caramelize the sugar in a saucepan until light brown. Add the vegetable stock—careful, it will splatter! Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring, until the caramel has released from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the chestnuts and the torn thyme leaves and cook until the liquid has almost evaporated. Then stir in the remaining butter. Heat the milk and froth it. Serve the soup in glasses and spoon the frothed milk over the soup. Top each with a tablespoon of chestnuts.